Fish Print T-Shirt

The man in the above picture is my cousin who lives in Denmark.  He loves anything to do with fish.  Because of this interest, I decided to make him a marlin inspired t-shirt!  This is my second venture into a printed t-shirt.

The last time I made a printed t-shirt, I made a stencil to get the pattern on the shirt.  Later, threadbanger came out with a video about a DIY spiked pants project where they printed anchors onto the pants.  To print the anchors, threadbanger made a stamp out of a potato.  Genius!  This method is perfect for printing a simple motif.

Here's threadbanger's video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiGsCBqHEsc


The first thing I needed to do was figure out my pattern.  I knew I wanted something dynamic and aquatic.  So I came up with a fish that would look really cool diagonally.  (Note: diagonal lines make things look more active.) This fish was the motif for my design.

The next step was transferring that motif into a stamp.  After finalizing the motif, I drew grid lines on the motif so that I would know how to place it.  Then I cut out the motif (with grid lines) and stuck in on the potato and made a stamp (Figure 1).  The I added notches that line up with the grid lines so that I would know how to place the stamp.

Figure 1: The motif on the potato.  The notches are the triangle cut out pieces on the edge.

Next I did a little trial on an old shirt (Figure 2).  My heart dropped because I forgot the most FUNDAMENTAL RULE of making a stamp: the image flips (makes the mirror image)!  I totally forgot to flip the image before cutting it out.   This mistake was okay because the nose pointing up looked a lot more dynamic.

Figure 2: My test.

The next step was to prepare the actual t-shirt (Figure 3).  I drew a grid on the shirt was washable marker so that I had a guide for placing my stamp.  Then I placed dots in the places where the stamp would be placed.  The pattern is a BRICK REPEAT (looks like a brick wall).

Figure 3: Preparing they shirt.  I emphasized the lines and dots in this picture on PowerPoint because the original marks were not showing up really well.

I lined up the grid lines with the notches in the potato to get the perfect placement (figure 4).  Because of this system, the whole stamping process went so fast.

Figure 4: Matching up the grid lines and the notches in the potato.

Figure 5 just shows progress and the mirror element of stamping.

Figure 5: Progress.  Notice how a stamp makes its mirror image on the surface of the project.

I think the shirt turned out great!  It looks really active and sharp.