11/30/2010

Off The Line

I've been trying to squeeze some new products into The Heated's line up. I'm considering prints, as you can see below. I also got the most beautiful tote bags in the mail yesterday. They're made in San Francisco from organic cotton so that's rad. It's great to integrate the buying local ethos into my supply chain so smoothly. You'll have a chance to check them out soon.



11/16/2010

Craft Night!

Have I mentioned that I'm hosting a gathering of local crafters next week? The Heated is playing a show at Mojito (1337 Grant Avenue, San Francisco) next week (Tuesday, November 23rd) and my set is really long (9:30 pm - 12:00 am). My special guest, drummer Zarah Gamaldi (founder of Crafters Local 415), suggested that we make it a craft night so that people can get some work done and get to know other local crafty types while we play. The show is free, parking is plentiful and we'll have the space set up so you can get some work done. You'll also have a chance to win a screen printed tea towel. So, that's cool.

Note: I realized that I put the cross street as Grant and Vallejo when Mojito is in fact, on Grant. The cross streets are GREEN and Vallejo. My bad.

11/15/2010

The Apartment Tree

Maybe I've already talked about the notebook I keep, or rather, notebooks as I'm now on my third one. I started keeping a notebook with me to write down all the things I need to get done, along with ideas on things I'd like to do someday. Mostly, these notebooks are big to-do lists but I also like to doodle and write down my dreams sometimes. I've found it tremendously useful to have a place where I can put things so I won't forget them. But you do have to remember to go back through them from time to time. Recently I went back through one from last year and was struck by the fact that not only did I remember to do this but that I hit the nail on the head with my little sketch. This is a new design I'm unveiling for the holidays and I call it "Apartment Tree".

note: As I was writing this blog post, I realized that my intention last year was not to design a dish towel but rather to actually make miniature trees! Maybe next year.

Last year's notebook reads, "Maybe next holiday season, you could make little 'Apartment Trees'?"

On the left is a folded dish towel that I created this holiday season.

11/12/2010

Press Performance

It's important to keep your equipment in good repair so I recently gave my printing press a tune-up. I scraped all the old adhesive, lint and ink off of it then I applied a fresh coat of adhesive. You could use a spray adhesive while you're screen printing but I hate spray adhesive. It's toxic and it can mess up your screens if any of the airborne adhesive drifts on to them. Plus it irritated my allergies. I prefer to use a spreadable adhesive called Table Tac. I also cleaned the hinges with some steel wool and then got some candle wax up in there to keep them from rusting. It's damp in that back room.

So shiny and fresh!

I wish I had a before shot of the press but I don't. Here it is all cleaned up.

I put these felt strips on the ends of the screen to keep the screen from resting on the press itself. This way the screen only comes into contact with the material I'm printing when I apply pressure with my squeegee. That helps with getting a sharper print. Raising the screen a little is called "offsetting".

Um... I used to forget to offset all the time but not anymore.

I also used to forget to lint roll, but not anymore.

I was making some green ink. Custom color!

My wife said the dishes pile looked pretty nice. I agreed and took a picture.

Here are towels waiting to be printed. The clothespins mark the center of the towel It's quite a pile I've got stacked up.

11/10/2010

Better Homes & Gardens

In early November, I started selling red Party Birds out of nowhere. Months earlier I had sent a red Party Bird to Better Homes & Gardens so I was hoping that was it. A customer on Etsy confirmed that it was indeed featured in Better Homes & Gardens but when I went to the store, they only had the October issue and it wasn't in there. 
     Then my brother called and said that he receives a subscription (he totally tried to pawn this fact off as his grandmother-in-law's fault, by the way) and I wasn't in the November issue. So, I contacted that nice Etsy customer and she let me know it was in a special interest publication titled Food Gifts. It looks great! I couldn't be happier with the way they presented it. Also of note is the fact that there is a bacon creation in the glass pan. Yum.



11/07/2010

Me Play Drums

I found this old blog post that I never got around to editing. It probably had something to do with me playing drums. That seems as good a segue as any to tell you that I have a new song out called "The Flood Building". Yet, there is no snare drum in "The Flood Building". But there are shakers so... close enough?



11/04/2010

Yeah, that Dwell!

The most exciting thing happened a few days ago. The Heated's very own Design Advice towel was chosen as the "Product of the Day" by Dwell magazine. Here's a picture of what that looked like and here's Dwell's website