FREE PALESTINE
T-SHIRTS
POLLS
If the resounding decision is a YES to printing individually lettered tshirts then we have a lovely lady who has offered to use her cricut machine to print transfers for us. She is happy to post the letters and then we simply need to heat press the letters onto the shirts. We work together often and she has the most extraordinary work ethic. All we need to pay for the blank tshirt and she is delighted to donate materials she has at home.
If we were to purchase the blank Sols Unisex Epic Organic Tshirts from firelable the price for C-E-A-S-E-F-I-R-E_N-O-W individual tshirts would be approximately £3.91 a tshirt. This includes vat and postage for 12 shirts, the price per shirt will decrease if the £7.99 postage cost is distributed across a larger order.
An example of a cricut tshirt can be found here: https://cricut.com/blog/how-to-make-t-shirts-with-cricut/
If we decide that we just want simple text printed upon our tshirts saying either ‘CEASEFIRE NOW’, "‘FREE PALESTINE’… we could use the cricut method also. This can be printed in whatever colour we desire.
TEXT FOR INDIVIDUAL SHIRTS
It would be brilliant to work out what the preference is for text so we can start discussing artwork/ plain text what would be preferable.
GETTING SHIRTS PROFESSIONALLY PRINTED
Getting the tshirts professionally printed which would reduce manpower and provide a high quality finish. Once the text is decided upon it would be great to understand what exactly we would like the tshirts to look like - plain text, colours, artwork?
One of the Options Marie suggested was the fruit of the loom shirts for approx £10 a shirt the great thing about this option is speed of turn around time.
Marie was able to talk to a business over the phone about printing and I think found a better provider but as an example…
PRINTING OUR OWN TSHIRTS
If we choose to print our own tshirts it would bring the cost per shirt down to approx £4.50 making it more affordable for everyone who wishes to purchase one for attending the court hearing.
An additional benefit of hand printing our own tshirts is that it increases the potential profit margin if ever we choose to produce shirts to sell at events to raise money for Medical Aid for Palestine. The cost of each shirt to produce is £4.50 and say we sell the tshirts at events for a minimum of £15 we could raise £10 per tshirt.
Screenprinting.
This could be a quick way of reproducing our design whilst achieving a high quality finish. We have been offered the use of an A4 Silkscreen, by an artist based in BOA who has also offered to help us produce the t-shirts. This would give us the freedom to hand-draw or transfer any desired graphic to the shirts. We could use an eco-friendly water-based ink such as that in the link below, priced at £7.49 excluding postage.
https://huntthemoon.co.uk/products/hunt-the-moon-waterbased-ink
Blockprinting
Another option would be to carve a block/ blocks in lino, in terms of materials again it would just be the ink that we would need to purchase. I am very happy to carve blocks and there are a few volunteers from our school that would be willing to help with this alongside others who have expressed an interest in the BCN chat. I am happy to host a laid back workshop printing session at my home for anyone that wants to volunteer time with the ready blocks.. Blockprinting without a press will have a hand finished appearance, so this is always a consideration.
Blank Tshirt Option
SOLS UNISEX EPIC ORGANIC TSHIRT
These tshirts can be ordered with next day delivery and blank, they are the cheapest organic option that I have been able to find without needing to be professionally printed but if anyone else finds alternatives that is amazing.
INITIAL ACTIONS
Decide if we want to produce C-E-A-S-E-F-I-R-E N-O-W individually lettered tshirts - (if so what colour would we want the writing to be?)
Decide upon text for tshirts.
Decide upon whether we should professionally print or handprint shirts.
Discuss potential artwork, do we want just text or anything else?