LS-Drew Graphics

New Scarves!! Hand-Dyed and Discharge-Printed

2011-12-12T18:40:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest creation! Hand-dyed Scarves--
both plain woven lightweight cotton, (shown at bottom in Mink Brown)
and knit cotton Infinity Scarves (all one piece of cloth, can be wound twice around one's neck, shown at top in Periwinkle Blue).
The pattern is based on a rubber stamp I did a long time ago.
The Dye colors shown are deep Periwinkle Blue, Mink Brown, Pewter Green, Barn Red and Whale-Tail [really Dark Navy-ish Blue Grey, a Dharma Muck Dye]

So, I will be selling these on 2 Holiday Sale dates:
•Wednesday 12/14/11, 4-7pm at UArts
Hamilton Hall, CBS Auditorium, 320
S. Broad St., Phila.,PA. --If you are in
Center City then----and
•Saturday & Sunday 12/17->18/2011, 10am to
5pm both days, at the
Mt. Airy Art Garage, 11 W. Mt. Airy Ave.,
Phila., PA. --in the NW section of Philly!

Future CEO of LS-Drew Graphics, wearing Robo-Squirrel!

2011-12-01T21:30:00.000-08:00

Well, here is yours truly at a very young age (along with my grandmom, Jolan,
who took care of me a lot when I was little).
Who knew I'd be visualizing the creation of
and rocking some Robo-Squirrel back then!!

Drew Graphics Logo T's

2011-10-16T18:09:00.001-07:00

Some of my Drew Graphics logo T-shirts...all lined up and ready to go! The beauty of print production!!
This was the first logo I designed for
Drew Graphics a long time ago; it was on our first business card, and also on one of my current ones.
The 3 shirts on the right are all my own over-dyed colors. The shirt has a small left-chest logo on the front and a larger logo across the back, printed in a very dark midnight blue ink.
Gotta spread the word!

Mt. Airy Art Garage/Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST)

2011-09-30T12:01:00.000-07:00

Mt. Airy Art Garage (www.mtairyartgarage.org), the local art group I belong to,
has a brand new building at 11 W. Mt. Airy Avenue in Northwestern Philadelphia---what better place to inaugurate my participation in my first POST event! (www.philaopenstudios.com)
I will be showing/selling my hand-printed graphic T-shirts there on 10/1 and 10/2/11;
hours are 12-6pm both days. There is ample parking locally, and also a trolley will
be running up and down Germantown Avenue for $5 a pop on Sunday 10/2, to allow
for easier studio-hopping! Stop in and say hi--And see the cool Mt. Airy artists and their stuff!

pattern and irregularity of element

2011-09-30T11:58:00.000-07:00

a prototype window shade printing, originally done for
Chestnut Hill Yoga.
more to come--but more than likely evolving
into garment prints in my next round of uninterrupted studio time....

Robo-Squirrel Dog T-Shirts!

2011-07-29T14:22:00.000-07:00

“Robo-Squirrel” by L.S.-Drew Graphics --
now in Dog T-Shirts.
Available in Pink and Blue, in XS, S, M and L.
100% cotton Shirts.
These fit smaller dogs.
Human Kids' size shirts
can also be printed to
fit larger animals.
Let your pet join in the fun too!

High Point Sunday Market, Allens Lane Station, Philadelphia

2011-07-16T13:55:00.000-07:00

Here I am on 7/3/2011 at the High Point Sunday Market, selling my rad shirts! This is a new weekly venue which also includes farm-fresh local veggies and even live music and other presentations--besides local artists/crafters.
The market is held at Allens Lane Train Station at Cresheim Road and Allens Lane, in lovely NW Philadelphia (West Mt. Airy), and goes from early June to the end of October this year; hours are every Sunday, rain or shine, 10 am to 4pm.
This has been an excellent summer venue for me in many ways!
My sister-in-law Shirley is at right, wearing a Marigold Conspiracy shirt (designed by Mira Adornetto, printed by me in late 2009).

New Hedge Trimmer T-Shirt/Hard at Work in the Studio

2011-06-04T16:37:00.001-07:00

Here I am in my studio (flexing the squeegee muscles!) getting ready for
summer ---and here is a preliminary view of the latest T-shirt --
just in time for gardening season, right?
It shows my old manual hedge trimmer and pruning shears.
(no electric or gas ones at my house!)
I have a similar T-shirt which features antique bolt cutters as well.
(that one can be seen on my Etsy store)
~For all you hand-tool aficionados!~

More Dyes on the Way!

2011-05-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I did it again! I had to satisfy my jones for more fresh and funky T-shirt Hand-Dyeing, so
I just ordered some more “Muck Dyes,” and other new fabric dye colors from Dharma Trading Company. I had SO much fun last summer doing my own dyes, and got such great results with both dyeing, and printing my designs on the dyed garments, that even though I wasn’t originally planning to do more dyeing any time soon---I just couldn’t resist (ok, very bad fiber-artist pun!)---especially once I caught the “Muck Dye” naming contest on Facebook a couple weeks ago!
For the uninitiated, Muck Dyes are the one-off, un-reproducible, weird-batch colors that Dharma makes available to the fiber-art public in the spring, via a mucky-color naming contest ---they are what lured me into dyeing last summer. Colors like “Elephant Elbow,” “Professor Plum” and “Muckleberry”--you get the idea!
By the way, my work is now on their website (it appeared on their April 2011 web newsletter)
The Dharma people were nice enough to feature my T-shirts on their website, and even said that they were especially psyched to have my stuff on there, since they don’t get that many screenprinters submitting work to them---so that is pretty super cool!
(actual link to appear shortly)

So now I am washing more T-shirts in preparation for the dyeing, and waiting for the new fun colors to arrive. This might end up being a yearly summer project for me! And I plan to have more studio time this summer, which is great.
More photos to come....as well as new T-shirt designs in the works!
Ok, back to the studio for more printing...

Incarnations---T-shirt Image Evolution, Part 1

2011-01-29T20:37:00.000-08:00

Here are 2 of my original non-silver print process images
(cyanotype and gum-bichromate) from which the
T-shirt image evolved.
Part 1 is the
“Chrome Car” print and Part 2 is the “Beach” print.
The Chrome Car T-shirt image also has other colorway variations (shown in previous posts).
Here I show it going from a cyanotype on paper, to a 4-color fabric screenprint on a white shirt; to more recently, a 3-color print using Discharge paste on a dyed shirt, to achieve the background building colors. I continue to experiment with discharge printing in this image, as my interest has largely been to see how various dyed shirt colors discharge and contribute to the image.

Incarnations---T-shirt Image Evolution, Part 2

2011-01-29T20:33:00.001-08:00

Robo-Squirrel for Kids!

2011-01-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

Announcing Robo-Squirrel, now printed on Kids'
size shirts!
Robo-Squirrel is a great image for all ages, and now
he appears on all kids' sizes, from Newborns to
Youth size Large!
The main Squirrel image is hand screenprinted in black water-based fabric ink,
and the wind-up key is hand-painted in red water-based fabric inks.
So far my people are embracing this new development.
Robo-Squirrel Energy for everyone!
(thanks to P.T. for sharing the photos)

More Relief Printing on Shirts

2010-11-29T00:04:00.000-08:00

My lovely 1971 vintage Brand etching press gets another workout!
This is the background color of my latest shirt design, printed on fabric from a piece of carved linoleum.
The final key image in black ink will be screenprinted next.
This image appears above. It is an architecturally-based image collaged of photos a friend took of an abandoned pier at Asbury Park, N.J., back in August 2010.

More T-shirt printing collaboration with Chestnut Hill Yoga

2010-11-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

Here are the first 2 designs (done by Mark Petravic of Chestnut Hill Yoga) I printed for promotion of Bobbi Tighe's yoga studio!
I really like the “Breathe” design!
A good visual reminder to take a moment, and do just that!!

New Yoga and Meditation Shirts

2010-08-30T00:06:00.001-07:00

Here is a pale blue V-neck shirt with my latest Yoga design.
On the front is the Om Heart-center, for focusing on the Heart chakra, and a sunflower for focusing on the Solar Plexus chakra. The Om Mani Padme Hum mantra circles around the perimeter of the heart image. On the back of the shirt is a Pigeon with Namaste’ logo in honor of the Pigeon pose.
(Pigeon is one of my fave poses that really de-stresses me!)
I find it helps to be able to have a visual prompt and an idea of body awareness on which to direct one’s mental energy while meditating or doing yoga. I can also see, during our yoga class interactions, that it can aid as a teaching tool as well.
One of my yoga teachers, Dawn Reid, and I collaborated on the Om heart image, and the garment image design as a whole recently finally came together.
I am doing a few different styles of garments for this design.
This shirt design is currently being hosted at Chestnut Hill Yoga,
thanks to Bobbi.

“Robo-Squirrel, Chestnut Hill Yoga, and You”

2010-07-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

Gratitude goes to one of my great Yoga Teachers, Bobbi Tighe of Chestnut Hill Yoga,
Philadelphia, PA., for hosting a little gathering, starting this week, of my super Robo-Squirrel T-shirts at her excellent yoga space!
www.chestnuthillyoga.com

We are endeavoring to use the Squirrel as a reminder to embrace our high energy,
yet quiet our minds. Wear the Robo-Squirrel T-shirt and join the movement!
Thanks to all my fellow Chestnut Hill Yogis!

My New Etsy T-shirt Shop ! and a new sales venue -The Print Center in Philadelphia

2010-07-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

I recently opened an Etsy Shop for your online
shopping pleasure featuring, what else, my
excellent T-shirts, here is the link:

http://lsdrewgraphics.etsy.com

More designs will be added, so please check back often--
this is a bit of a work-in-progress. Like another
Etsy seller said about doing the shop set-up---it is kind of like a big
video game---there are lots of small pieces and details to
attend to... But Fun! Here’s to generating lots of sales!

Also, The Print Center Gallery Store at
1614 Latimer Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19103
215-735-6090
is the latest bricks-and-mortar outlet for my T-shirts, among many
other cool artists’ prints. Stop by and show some love for Printmaking in
Philly!
for more info on the Print Center, go to:
www.printcenter.org

{Alas, unfortunately we had to say goodbye in May to my former venue,
the All By Hand Store in Philly's Liberty Place...
Big thumbs-up, though, to Juli and Abby for making a cool artist gallery store
happen, and we are all looking forward to their next venture!}

T-shirt Dyeing! and other fabric-oriented stuff to play with

2010-07-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have taken the plunge, so to speak, in experimenting with dyeing T-Shirts
myself. Had a whole big old pile of white and lighter colored shirts that just
wasn’t happening.... so I got a few colors to play with. I don’t plan to do this all the time
for my shirts, it is rather time-consuming (which is why it had to wait til summer). It
has been a lot of fun. Dharma Trading Co. makes the best Fabric Dyes! The dye and shirts can be seen soaking in my lovely bathtub, as well as the final result of the first color--a deep warm honey-
mustard tan shade! This shirt (with the blue bike logo) is one of my students’ class collaborative T-shirts from a past semester. I dyed a bunch of those class shirts too --I would like to sell them and see how it goes.
Also here are some antique copper batik/ ink stamps I just got from Dharma --again, to play with new design possibilities.
Exciting!

“Brayer History”

2010-04-11T13:16:00.001-07:00

The latest design---
inspired by old brayers/brayer
“skeletons”. The world of printmaking is
littered with old dysfunctional brayers, or what's left of them;
and a great many that obviously didn't pass the
“Art-School-Test”. If only they could talk.....
I love the graceful calligraphic aspect of the brayer handle shapes at the top of the image ---that brayer handle (long missing its rubber roller) came with my Brand etching press last year, along with a few other roller cores awaiting refurbishing. Since it always seemed a bit fancy for a brayer (more decoration of a utilitarian item when it doesn't need to be, one of my favorite themes), it also reminds me of that article in Yankee magazine entitled “What's-It,” featuring a strange gadget or flea market find, and readers would write in with their guesses as to what the implement's function was. (an SGC visitor to my table mistakenly guessed
“cheese slicer” ----well, it is a bit large for that, don't you think? And why, then, would it be hanging out with lines of text, other brayers, and positive-negative shapes, such as one often gets in relief printing? Hmmmmm..... the mystery continues!...)

This is an all-around print, utilizing discharge printing as well as fabric inks, rather a tour-de-force for getting it onto the shirt!
I think the future incarnation of this T-shirt image will
be to incorporate my previous geared Kelton study
(really the Hunter-Penrose press image) on the front chest area of the
shirt----to make it even more printmaking-related and less artist's-reception-cheese-oriented.
Sometimes it takes time to work the bugs outta the prototypes...

Everyone Loves “Robo-Squirrel”!!

2010-04-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, they are flying off the shelves, folks!
Due, in part, to my recent success in the publishers fair at the Philly incarnation of the Southern
Graphics Council conference in late March! Thanks to my customers, old and new!

Marigold "Guerrilla" Conspiracy!

2010-04-08T11:21:00.001-07:00

Now that it is pseudo-summer in Philly, it's on!
Marigold Conspiracy T-shirt Launch Party on
Saturday 4/24/10!

Designed by my colleague and former student,
Mira Adornetto and printed by moi.
With able assistance from Mira, Dawn Reid and friends.

Newest Series: Tools / The Art School Test (old) Drill

2010-02-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

Here is my homage to my old drill that I used for many years at my school (it was probably older
than me!). It finally bit the dust last fall, and I bought a new kick-butt cordless one that I also
like; but somehow that new one feels just too new and weird--- and the old one
still feels like home... So I decided to memorialize the old drill on a shirt.
I love the post-war aircraft look it has.
“The Art School Test” refers to my term for anything --equipment, mostly ---(but maybe also people too)--- who can stand up to many years of being in an art school and still hold up.
This old drill, out of very few things, definitely passed the test!!
More T-shirts with tools on them coming up soon!

A New Store, “All By Hand,” in the Liberty Place shops, Philadelphia, PA

2009-11-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

All By Hand, a new store supporting Philly's local artists and craftspeople, is opening
at the Shops at Liberty Place at 17th & Market Streets
(enter on 17th Street side, first floor) in downtown Philadelphia.
The Grand Opening is on Sunday, November 15, 2009, from noon to 6pm.
Store Hours are Monday-Saturday, 9:30am--7pm, and Sundays, noon--6pm,
until December 31st, 2009.
My T-shirts will be for sale in this excellent venue.
If you are in Philly, come check it out--and show some local love!
Thanks and kudos to Julianna Lose (one of my former students, I might add!), and
her business partner, Abby Flanigan, for making this awesome retail opportunity happen!!

“Estampia” ---an older T-shirt image

2009-09-07T16:59:00.000-07:00

These images are from a shirt design I did a number of years ago when I
was still relatively new to T-shirt printing. The Hungarian stamp image of the male face
that looked to me like a monk went on the front, the
French stamp with the smaller icons went on the back.

I collected stamps as a kid.
My late father-in-law also had a collection, which impressed me
greatly once I found out about it. I revisited subscribing to
a mail-order stamp program about 25 years ago, but quickly realized
I didn’t have the time, money or propensity to keep it as organized as it really
should be----oh, and I still wanted to do art, too---so the stamp collecting
finally fell by the wayside, yet I found lots of beautiful images on them
for inspiration. “Estampia” was a way for me to use a few of my favorites,
pay tribute to the lure of my always-fascinating part-Hungarian background,
and also try out some screen monoprinting on the shirt. At the time I was feeling a little constrained by the screen stencil processes. I enjoyed doing these and they sold well,
but it was pretty labor-intensive and time-consuming, as I soon found out---so I
decided to abandon this design.

Discharge Printing Takes Center Stage

2009-09-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

Over this summer I started doing water-based Discharge Printing,
which is where you apply a bleaching agent in a controlled manner
to a dyed fabric, achieving an intermediary color shade in those image areas.
Can I just say, “Way Cool?!”
I did 2 new images of Vandercook letterpresses---One of an SP-20 Repro;
the other of a #325G, and its pertinent reminder on the press-bed of the
“Dead Line” ---yes, folks, that is exactly where the term, “Deadline” came from---
our friends in the commercial printing industry.
You know, the place in the universe that comes up on us much too fast, a little
too familiar a feeling. It's nice to have it illustrated so well on the press--- leave it to
those printers!
I am pretty happy with the discharge Vandercook T-shirts, especially since I kind of resisted doing a Vandercook T-shirt in the beginning. They are wonderful presses to print with,
but I felt visually challenged by their numerous no-nonsense straight lines---not many sinuous curves to catch the eye on these, being part of the mammoth 20th-century
industrial printing age.
But a friend who saw my work at the Hybrid Book conference (June 2009) suggested that I come up with a Vandercook shirt, so the intersection of using that request as inspiration, and this new way of printing worked out perfectly.

I also revisited my older images---the Desert Chevy Nomad, the Chrome Car, and
the Food Chain T-shirts---just to see what would happen.
I plan to play with a few other previous incarnations, in
this fun experimenting with positive and negative imagery, and learning about dyed color
possibilities. These photos show examples of all the images I worked on with
discharge paste; some are combined with regular water-based fabric ink also.
I didn't get to do any more woodcuts on shirts as of this writing, but I have a number of
ideas I'd still like to pursue. Yup, I wish I could clone myself----especially with the busy fall
season upon us!

My other new project is to get an Etsy store up and running as soon as I can, so I have a real
online outlet in which to sell my shirts. This is a bit of a process, a little more
than I first realized. Right now I am photographing more of my designs and preparing inventory specifically for the Etsy store.
I'll be announcing on this blog and elsewhere when it is ready, so check back later!
My blog will then be re-edited somewhat and function as a showcase for my designs as I add to my portfolio, and whatever insights about them I feel moved to write about.
Thanks for reading!

1-800-Squirrel-Away!

2009-06-24T17:35:00.001-07:00

The latest in my series of conjuring Good Squirrel
Garden Karma...
inspired by a friend's Ebay handle, this is my first foray into
combining woodcuts with screenprinting on a T-shirt.
The name sounds like it could be for an exterminator, so if you have a love-hate relationship with squirrels, this is the shirt for you! However, it is really more of an homage to my friend and
also alludes to the packrat nature of many artists and others,
myself included.
The saw-blade-like element has become a critical personal energy symbol for me, but without getting too metaphysical about it, this part of the image was also directly inspired by the Philadelphia Hidden Cities project at the Disston Saw Works, kicking off a recent re-kindling of my fascination with old factories.
I hope to further examine this interest through making and printing more woodcuts.

New Press, Fresh Ink!

2009-06-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

The Summer Solstice of 2009 is being celebrated by the maiden voyage of
my “new” old Charles Brand etching press, ‘Magda Perylene Blue’ [a.k.a. “The
Big-Girl Press”], vintage 1971!
(Yes, for those of you who are curious, I gave my press a name, as all my really important mechanical items have names, and not “You @#$%!!”---Magda is kind of an all-purpose name inspired by many of my female ancestors and relatives, but sort of based on my Hungarian great-grandmother---plus, I once rode a beautiful horse named Magda {I was big into the horse-riding thing in my youth--apparently printing presses supplanted that interest!}; and, in the family of perylene pigments, there are many colors but I have not yet seen a “Perylene Blue,” and blue is my favorite color...
the “Big Girl” part came from the expression, “Put on your Big-Girl pants, and deal with it”...
So now I finally have the real Big Girl press to help me deal with it!)
These are the first prints of elements with woodcuts, to augment my screenprinted
images on my T-shirts.

The Hybrid Book Conference at the University of the Arts

2009-06-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all my customers, new ones and old ones, for helping to make my
Hybrid Book Fair a success! (even though I stopped being a “book artist”
a long time ago...)
Now I am going back to the studio to work on some new
ideas--watch for more here!

Charles Brand Press Mfg. Logo T-shirts

2008-12-07T18:19:00.000-08:00

In response to recent collaboration with the good people at Suitcase Press (printing press repair and sales), I am offering the Charles Brand Logo T-shirt to a wider circle of Printmakers.
Charles Brand Presses (originally made in New York City) are among the best and most durable printing presses (etching and litho) ever designed.
They are unfortunately no longer manufactured.
But, chances are you have seen them in many studios, and even used them, as they are in numerous schools.
For all you proud Brand press owners and Brand press “power users”!!
Available in Adult sizes S, M, L, XL Short-sleeve cotton T-shirts:
In black ink on white or other lighter color shirts; or in white ink on a black T-shirt; cost as above, $20.00 plus shipping and handling.
Email me: jamadaru@aol.com for further info.

2008-12-07T18:08:00.001-08:00

Geared Press-2-color

2008-12-07T17:54:00.000-08:00

This press is really a Hunter Penrose Press, but
before I knew that for sure I made this image after Gabor Peterdi's geared Kelton press.
Future printings of this T-shirt image will likely have the Kelton logo removed, to avoid confusion.
However, a large part of this series imagery has involved the typography of the press names, which has been important to me. So, for now, this image is a bit of a collage approach!!
Shown are a variety of T-shirt colors which complement the image.

“The Furniture of the Univers”

2008-12-07T17:37:00.000-08:00

This is a Chandler and Price clamshell letterpress in a diminutive tabletop size,
perched on a great retro solid black distressed-finish cabinet. Ready to go!
The title “The Furniture of the Univers” refers to a triple pun involving Furniture
(letterpress and otherwise!), Letterpress/typefaces, and a Philosophy term. It is based on
a joke that my undergrad letterpress teacher and I made in class, during the first
demonstration of locking up the type on a Vandercook Letterpress---obviously a
procedure that uses furniture; you are not going to get far in your printing without that!---and concerning our humble and basic typeface----seemingly millions of pounds of ‘Univers’, which is all the studio had. We definitely learned how to spec type with no
curlicues to distract us! Well, maybe you kind of had to be there......

Howard Etching Press (front of shirt)

2008-12-07T17:27:00.000-08:00

This image comes in either a light salmon 2nd color background or a light turquoise background.
(can be printed on various shirt colors, depending---the salmon background looks better with green shades and blue-grey hues as well as rust colors; the turquoise also looks good on reddish shirts and either blues or greens)
On the back of the shirt in black ink is a bonus close-up detail of the press frame.
These presses were made in Philadelphia, back in the day!!

Fuchs and Lang Lithography Press

2008-12-07T17:22:00.001-08:00

The legs of this press remind me of a grasshopper ready to spring from the ground...
A sturdy and unassuming little workhorse of a press, ready to handle any litho stone....

Kelton Etching Press 2 (Front of shirt) and a Tote Bag...

2008-12-07T17:15:00.001-08:00

Another view of the Kelton Etching press.

I am also offering press image totebags.
Shown is the same image of the Kelton.
I will put the other press images on the
totebags too.

Back of the Kelton Etching press T-shirts

2008-12-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

The backs of both of the Kelton 1 and 2 T-shirts (printed in black ink) are printed with this
window-pane of Kelton silhouettes, with the curved Kelton logo echoing the cast-in builders'
name at the bottom of the press side-frames; and also expressing the top-arched window frames of the industrial buildings from the time period in which this press was made and used.

Kelton Etching Press 1 (Front of shirt)

2008-12-07T16:51:00.000-08:00

My connection to old printing machinery has a personal facet as well. The first etching press I owned was made by this company, M.M. Kelton, out of Brooklyn and New York City, and was very much like the one in this design. It is a cast-iron direct drive etching press. I bought it right after finishing my undergraduate degree ---the finding of it was a pre-wedding gift from my late husband, Jim. It just so happened that an acquaintance of his at that time had a big old farmhouse in the Philadelphia suburbs with a basement bursting with artifacts from the WPA. The man's father had been a WPA artist. Rather fitting, considering that this year is the 75th anniversary of the WPA!
Unfortunately I had to sell the press after having it for 10 years, because I moved and had no usable space in which to keep it. The press moved around a lot while I owned it and its current owner has moved it around quite a bit also. Although I still miss the press, I am happy that it has an appreciative home! (And I have since gotten a tabletop Charles Brand Etching press and I am very pleased with it.)

I have always been especially intrigued with the lovely lines of this press, and I know the memory of having owned one like this has been a prime motivation for doing this series.

Antique Printing Press Series 2008

2008-12-07T16:23:00.000-08:00

I have recently re-connected with my love of old printing presses. With my being a printmaker, growing up around mechanically-minded people, and being involved in press maintenance
as part of my “day job”, this development would seem to be a natural outgrowth of my work that I nearly overlooked.
This most recent batch of T-shirts is a series of various old (late 1800’s-early 1900’s) printing press models, designed to print their respective print media, i.e., Etching, Lithography or Letterpress.
I am particularly fascinated by the graceful lines in the heavy cast iron
machinery, as opposed to their singular earthy utility---that their designers had the time and actually bothered to make them “pretty,” even though they were meant to do dirty industrial jobs, is remarkable. Maybe it really was about Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, on more than one level, after all! I fear that should these presses ever fail to be appreciated, either in or out of their useful realm, they would be destined for the scrap heap, going the way of other obsolete technologies.
So I have been on a quest to document these presses I find, particularly since the heyday of hand-printing and beautifully simple machinery recedes farther and farther into the rear-view mirror, while the digital age of speed at all costs rules over much of today’s world activities. Wearing the press image on a T-shirt, to me, symbolizes and solidifies the human body scale relationship and daily activity choreography inherent in the utilitarian aspects of both press and shirt.

The “Gem” Paper Cutter in the earlier post was the catalyst for my starting this group of designs.

2008-08-11T21:47:00.000-07:00

All my T-shirts are hand-printed with water-based fabric ink on 100% short-sleeve cotton shirts. All these designs are available on just about any medium to light color shirt, such as white, natural, light yellow, rust, light sea green, light blue, medium blue, red, heather grey, ash grey, peach, magenta, maroon, storm grey, overdyed gray, tan, medium brown, orchid, and avocado green. (Hues like navy, dark charcoal and black don't seem to work as well, therefore I don't offer them, unless it is a special design made to work with dark colors). If you see a color shirt and design you like here, feel free to order that--if you'd like it in some other color, email me, and I'll let you know its availability. I generally carry a range of colors and sizes, in most of these designs.

These inks fade down into the fabric with wear, time and washing, giving a naturally weathered appearance. Some of the shirt colors I offer are over-dyed shirts--therefore the dye in these shirts may also gradually fade down into the fabric. I recommend always washing on gentle cycle in lukewarm water and air-drying the shirt--after washing the shirt for the first time by itself--as the inks and/or shirt dyes can bleed. Please do not use any type of bleach!!
All designs are available in Adult sizes S, M, L, XL. Other sizes and/or styles available on
special request.

Please email me at jamadaru@aol.com for further ordering information and quantity discounts. See my Etsy online store at the top right, for my latest!
New designs will be posted here as they are made-- please check back again!
Thanks for browsing!-----
Laurel
*All T-shirt designs and photos are copyright© DrewGraphics and LS-DrewGraphics -all rights reserved.

Tower (JSD)

2008-08-11T21:33:00.000-07:00

In my kitchen, modeling the "Tower" design.
These last four designs were actually done by my late husband, James S. Drew (1957-2001)
who was also an artist and printer. He was one of the best screenprinters I have known.
The "Beach" image below is from a photo of my late mother, Joanne (1933-2003),

taken in 1956 when my parents first met; for a long time it reigned as one of my family's iconic and momentous photos. My mother was a painter, and was my first artistic influence ---and of course, she was very supportive of me becoming an artist. Both of these people helped shape who I am today,

and it is in honor of their memories that I continue to include their imagery in my portfolio.

Portal (JSD)

2008-08-11T21:32:00.000-07:00

Ex Libris (JSD)

2008-08-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

For all you book lovers and book artists out there...

Beach (JSD)

2008-08-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

African Headdress

2008-08-11T21:27:00.000-07:00

Headdress Portrait 1:

2008-08-11T21:25:00.001-07:00

A-Zai: Lord of the Dynamos

2008-08-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

In 30th Street Station (PRR War Memorial)...

2008-08-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

Desert Chevy Nomad

2008-08-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

The image of the car is on the front, with a small desert landscape in black ink
across the back...

Twigs

2008-08-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

This image is made with a split fountain (4 colors) and the twig image printed on top, on front and back of shirt. As split fountains are created by having all these colors in the screen inkwell together, the effect is more painterly and individualistic--therefore your shirt image may vary
slightly from the one shown here.

From "Skirting the Issue: M/F" -Overall Print

2008-08-11T21:08:00.000-07:00

Again, the overall printing is done
on the front and back of the body of the shirt
in an unpredictable manner according
to the artist's whims. Your shirt, therefore,
will be an individual creation and may
vary in appearance from the one
shown here.

From "Skirting the Issue/MYthos" -Overall Print

2008-08-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

This overall printing is done in
a random and unique fashion;
thus yours may appear
somewhat different than the one
shown here.

Food Chain: Over-all Print

2008-08-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

This example is mostly the
"Food Chain" design, (the hardware images chasing
each other, so to speak) with other elements thrown in.
If this design is ordered, it will be printed with the
"Food Chain" images all over the body of the shirt.
As the over-all printing is random, each shirt will
be a unique creation and
appear different than the one shown here.

Chrome "B" (psychedelic)

2008-08-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

Chrome "A" (earth toned)

2008-08-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

Robo-Squirrel

2008-08-11T20:50:00.000-07:00

Ink Squirrel1

2008-08-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

"Gem" Antique Guillotine Paper Cutter

2008-08-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to PT/SCP for allowing the use of the
original photograph