I Got Worms

I’ve been up late the last few nights studying up on worm composting. Yeah, I know that watching YouTube videos of worms at 2 AM is more than kind of sad…it’s extremely sad. The guy working at the pizza place where I eat lunch (often) has a degree in horticulture and got me going on the idea. (That’s totally Santa Cruz- everyone has a degree in something that can’t be used, and as a result, they work 2 jobs that are totally beneath them to survive.) All my searching of articles and forums gave me a real good idea how to build a continuous flow vermicomposting bin, so I sketched out a plan. Materials and time spent constructing this thing made the “Can-O-Worms” pre-built stacking bin seem quite sensible. I live in an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz County, and residents like me are offered a bin for only $25 delivered, so it’s hard to beat it.  The same bin goes for around $125 plus shipping online.  So the bin is on it's way, now I need to score a couple pounds of worms.  My daughter is very excited about this and wants to go get them right now.  Worms go for around $20 a pound, which, oddly enough is the same price as Fillet Mignon. How weird is that? My wife was absolutely correct when she said “you don’t have the free time to be fucking around with a worm farm.” I’ll find the time.

Red Wigglers

Guido Roofing Screen Print

Printed these up last night and cured them this morning. Black and Royal Blue shirts, polos and sweat shirts. This is a reprint order, but the first run was done only on blue shirts so the character’s blue hat and shirt and the blue of the sky was not printed…just a knock out. This was a way to cut costs for the first run. Black shirts require a blue screen to be added with a white under base under the entire circle. All that under base sucks up the white ink pretty quick. I was adding more ink every 4 shirts. I think this image looks real nice on black. Everything pops better on black.

7 color print still on press



Flipped for your viewing pleasure



Solar post hardening of screens


When I was setting up, the sun actually came out for a bit. This was the fourth time this happened all summer, so it was kind of a big deal. I was able to post harden my screens the fast and free way! Post hardening toughens up the emulsion after your initial exposure and washout. This second dose of UV rays makes the stencil hold up better for a long run, especially when you use a very thin coat of emulsion like I do. Thin emulsion=thin stencil=thin layer if ink laid down=soft final print. This was set up on all 110 mesh screens, except the black was my usual 230 mesh

Opening Post/ Bad Brains Gig Poster

Well, here it is. The first post in my first ever blog. Still not to sure what a blog is, but I guess I'll figure it out as I go. Just got the thumbs up for a Bad Brains poster. One of my favorite bands EVER! I'm pretty excited about it. Sketch is simple...we'll see how close I stick to it.

These will print on 25" X 9.5" stock that was cut special for me by the guys at Sentinal Printers in Santa Cruz. While the paper was being cut, we talked about doing an offset print/ screen print team up. Sounds like a good thing to me.