I made you t-shirts
A bonanza of whimsy
Hi! Somehow you’ve made it over here to my little newsletter and I’m so glad that you’re here. I like to share things that I’m making and what has been inspiring me lately. I would love it if you subscribe.
I love making products for people to enjoy. I grew up in a little beach town with the cutest gift shops in the whole world. My favorite past time was wandering around those shops enjoying the objects people put into the world. I have always wanted to be one of the people who made those objects. So when I started playing around creating cut paper collages in my basement, I thought some of them would translate well on my own products. I designed the t-shirts that I would want to wear, so that even if no one bought one I could still keep the sample for my wardrobe.
There’s the Paper Cut Pansy with its bold cottage core grandma vibes. Then there’s the Folk Sunshine with its goofy smiley face. And finally the shirt I call Hey Geese because that’s what my Mom would shout at the sky every time we saw a flock of migrating geese heading South for the winter. There are also shirts celebrating Philadelphia like this Hoagie shirt and everyone’s favorite boat that we used to gaze at while eating meatballs at Ikea, the SS United States.
So here they are folks, some sweet simple t-shirts you can buy if you’d like. They make me really happy. Available for purchase here.
I’ll add my neurotic ramblings about figuring out how to get these into the world after Things Worth Sharing if you’re interested. If you’re not interested then pretend that I am a totally cool designer who never worries about anything and just buy yourself a little treat.
Things Worth Sharing
I know we are all thinking about the folks not getting paid because of the government shut down and the folks not getting their SNAP benefits this week. Philabundance is the best local place to donate or find a food bank.
I would very much like to visit the Margate Shell Grotto in England. It’s been open to the public since 1837 and no one knows who made it or why. If you need me I’ll be going down a shell grotto rabbit hole this week. Maybe I’ll devote a whole post to them.
I would like to live in this Oregon Coast beach shack by Topher Sinkinson.
This is my favorite thing to bake with apples in the fall. It’s a French apple tart from the brain of Ina Garten. It’s so simple and so good. I’ve always made it with puff pastry on the bottom and not homemade pastry. It is two thumbs up.
Elliott’s been loving the Greeking Out podcast. We also all love this Greek Myths book by our Fishtown friend Mike Townsend.
We loved watching this video of the Go Bro, a really special wheelchair that allows little kids to interact with their peers.
I got to visit the newly opened Calder museum here in Philly with a couple of my favorite ladies on Saturday. The building and grounds are beautiful. It is small but mighty.
I think there’s someone in your life that needs some personalized ticonderogas.
I was Tilly Green from Big City Greens for halloween. I could barely see but the little kids shouting “HI TILLLLLYYYY” was totally worth it.
Ok here’s my t-shirt ramblings.
After I made my t-shirt designs I wrestled with how to get them out into the world. I went back and forth between two options. The first option was to print one design at a time, have them locally printed and then do a limited time shop where people could buy it. Maybe I would do a discounted pre order to pad the up front cost of the t-shirt order. The downside to this is that I am limited by how many designs I can make. Local printers require you to purchase a minimum quantity of shirts per order and you have to eat the cost of any shirts you don’t sell. I have a bin of leftover shirts in the basement that haven’t sold from previous shirt making adventures. I love the idea of having things printed locally but I have no idea what quantity of shirts I should order and stocking the right sizes is a total guessing game. I like the idea of doing drops of a single product for a limited time. They sound like a fun event that folks can rally around. I could also make the packages really cute and special with added notes and stickers. The shirts would cost more, and it would be a lot more work with an unknown payoff.
The second option was to do a print on demand store. This way you upload your art to a print on demand site and every time someone purchases a shirt it gets made to order and ships to your customer direct from the factory. I wasn’t sure what the quality would be like, so I ordered samples and I felt good about them. I actually really love them. They are dtg printed, and not screen printed. I can tell the difference, but I don’t know if everyone cares about that sort of thing. The upsides are that I don’t have to stock all the sizes and can easily try out different designs without worrying if they will sell. I can sell them at a very reasonable price. I can also link my shop to an Etsy store or amazon shop down the line to expand my reach outside my audience. The downsides are that the packaging feels very impersonal, there’s nothing special about receiving the package. If I shipped them I could add little stickers and a note, but I can’t do that with print on demand. I also think locally printed shirts would have a slightly better printing quality. Decisions decisions.
It was really hard, but I went with option number two. This option would allow me to experiment more. I can add a lot of different designs and try different products very easily and with very little risk. But this is a learning process, so I may change things up in the future. I’m also curious about wholesale. I would love to sell my designs to little shops, that is a down the line goal. Baby steps!
Another big thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to streamline my shop(s). I have a bigcartel site where I usually sell things and pay $15 a month for that, but it won’t link to this new printify shop I’ve created for shirts. And I can’t sell hand made objects alongside the print on demand things in the printify store, it just won’t let me. I can sell everything in an Etsy store but Etsy takes a hefty 6.5% cut plus more weird fees that I don’t understand yet on top of what printify charges me. It’s all very confusing and I don’t know exactly what I want to do yet. It’s a web I need to untangle. Are you good at this sort of thing? Do you have any advice?
Ok, go get a t-shirt they’re so fun!
Thank you all so much for being here and following along on this journey. It means the world to me!
My Shop: phillycornerstore.bigcartel.com
E-mail: halestormenator@gmail.com