A handful of years back, after I got my first letterpress, I promptly got a huge mark of black ink on one of my most favorite shirts. You see I, unlike many other smart-minded well-thinking people, usually do not wear rags when I print. I just ink up and print in whatever I’m on wearing on any given day or at any given time. I do usually wear an apron to clean my press but while printing I guess I just don’t think about ramifications. So, of course, splat, ink stain (or at this point, many ink stains).
I remember as I washed the shirt I realized the ink was not going to come out. Merde! But also, A-ha! And an idea was born … I promptly started letterpress printing on fabric. I grew to love the look of the ink, faded little by little with each washing, and how awesome it was to be able to use my already aquired studio tools to print on totes, tees and the like.
Now, years later, you can see where that original black ink stain has gotten me. My newest letterpress project, WEE, a custom onesie pop-up shop that will only remain open until the end of June, launched this past week.
So the next time you get a stain on your shirt, or any other such curse-worthy type of mistake, who knows?! Maybe it’s your next best idea waiting to happen.