New psychic spychick design//putting in the time (Patreon)

I've been feeling very reflective this month. About how far I've come, how much I've learned, how at peace I am processing through my griefs at this point in my life. It's not *all* peace, but the peace struggles its way to the surface easier and easier. I've been getting really serious about making music and art. Practicing a discipline I started to want for myself and lay the foundation of 3+ years ago when I started this blog. I have seen the ways that building creative habits has led to enormous breakthroughs in small moments over time. It's a lot of work, but it is work worth doing.

I did my first screen print about a year ago for My Yucky Valentine with just me and a friend in my apartment, and I learned a lot from that. This year I went for something a little more ambitious. This weekend I'm doing a 3-color screen printing run at the studio, and it has been just the right amount of push to make it challenging but possible. We finished the first color yesterday and it turned out great. Five people seems like a perfect amount of help for holding the screen, checking the registration marks, hanging wet shirts, making color pairing choices, etc. It's cool to do it all again with so much more space and help. I'm hopeful that there will be some time to alter the shirts too, but that's just extra fun once everything else is ready to go.

It took a while to figure out the graphic design puzzle to make the transparencies to burn the screens. There's surely a more efficient way to do it, but I got there eventually. Between the alternate sticker and screen print designs, I spent about 20 hours in the digital space on this one. I learned a lot about vector graphics and clipping masks. I feel pretty confident finding my way around Krita at this point, and I started learning Inkscape a few days before my self-imposed deadline for getting the transparencies printed. There is still much to learn. Bless the long hours of trimming weed and watching youtube tutorials.

BUT FOR SURE, we will have some fresh screen printed shirts and stickers, and a new song, in time for our show in Anchorage on the 23rd. Thank ya'll again and again for paying for things like screens and an emulsion scoop coater and printing and getting my guitar restrung. I will have stickers for you soon. Back to mailing things and uploading process photos once this last little project push is over.

Hang in there for springtime,

~amelia