Printmaking
Bandanas - handmade with love & solidarity
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For years I have been making bandanas from scratch, fabricated from upcycled materials. It is my way of fighting back against fast fashion - the process of creating them is slow and repetetive. In creating my bandanas I connect to the history of queer hanky culture, and hope to provide a piece of original art that is both affordable and easy to carry with you. You can find my bandanas for sale on my online store & at Visions Co. in Bisbee, Arizona.
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The Process
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1. I use Inkscape (Adobe Illustrator free alternative) to create a bandana design from my pen & ink drawings. This design is printed onto a transparency and burned onto a screen. If doing a linocut bandana, I will instead carve out my linoleum blocks. Inevitably I will stab myself in the hands a few times during this process.
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2. Fabric is sourced from a thrift store. Usually this fabric comes from a 100% cotton bedsheet, sometimes a 50% cotton/poly blend. Natural fibers are preferable for water-based screen printing and tend to yield better results. All fabric is washed before printing. Every bandana color is inherently limited-edition, as I make very small production quantities and often never find the same color/pattern fabric again!
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3. Fabric is cut into squares by hand. 22"x22" is a standard bandana, so I usually aim for somewhere around this size, but sometimes I go a bit bigger or smaller.
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4. Fabric squares are printed on! Some bandanas are screenprinted and some are linoblock printed. I always use water based inks. In the past I have done my screenprinting either in Philadelphia at or in Tucson at Word of Mouth Print Space. If I'm linoblock printing, I do it in my skoolie using "stomp technology" (I jump up and down on the lino blocks).
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5. Fabric is placed on a drying rack, then sent through the dryer on high heat twice to set the ink. I often do the drying at the nearest laundromat!
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6. I sew the edges using my 1960 Singer Slant Needle Sewing Machine. This is the tedious part... but now the bandanas are done!
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7. Some bandanas get sold online, some get sold in person. I often vend at vehicle-dweller meetups and art markets. I have some patches and paper prints that I only sell in person.
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Designs
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Bats! AKA "The Bat-dana" - Inspired by my love of vampires and my Halloween birthday.
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Texas Barnyard AKA "The Barn-dana" - A silly design about my time living in Austin TX
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Rigs AKA "The Van-dana" - A tesellation of vehicle portraits, drawn of my friends' diverse set of rigs
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Desert Critters - My lino-block design! This one varies from bandana to bandana and is usually made up of 10-13 individual prints, inspired by the deserts of the West
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