screen printing 101. class is now in session.

i know… it’s been awhile since i’ve posted on here. this is meant to be a place where my thoughts can be let loose. but preparing for going on tour has taken up all my time and mental energy. so now that i’m officially on the road touring, as of april 1st, i can finally start regularly updating this. partially for the entertainment of others, partially for my own sanity.

lets start back in gainesville, almost a month ago, with screen printing 101.

 

i needed to find a way to make money while on the road. gotta pay for that gas to get to the next show right? not to mention the occasional bite of food. so i needed merchandise to sell. two albums, some stickers, button pins & magnets. easy enough. but what about t-shirts? it cost so much money to have t-shirts printed, even if by a local company. so how about i print them myself? screenprinting can’t be that hard right?

 

first things first is pulling off the old screen on the frame you borrowed from a friend.

old-screen

then you stretch the new screen with a staple gun handy. kinda like stretching canvas.

stretch-screen

i’ve got a lovely bunch of stretched out screen, diddly dee. there they are standing in a row, bum bum bum. big ones, small ones, ones as big as your head….

3-screen

next you find yourself a sam. sam’s are easy enough to find. they’re friends named sam who know how to screen print already. they’ll show you the ropes the first time around.

sam-help

dark room fun with emulsion. for burning up the screen. emulsion is light sensitive.

dark-room

at this point, we have to take an ice cream break (says sam’s son). hey, screen printing is hard work…

icecream

back at the presses on my own. time to push through some envelopes and shirts.

press

the first shirt! i’m so proud.

first-shirt

i also made patches 🙂

patch-screen

easy enough. now i have some great shirts and patches to sell on the road!

-marc

 

 

p.s. i want this sink

sink

Seriously! The title says it all. Transparent Voyages will be available worldwide this Friday March 18th. Plus if you happen to be in Gainesville, Florida on Friday:

Come out to our Album Release Party at The Atlantic!
Check out the details here on Facebook

And for everyone else, don’t you worry. You have two options:

1) Buy the album online from Amazon, iTunes, CD Baby, emusic, etc.
2) Come see us live at one of the many shows happening around the country. Check out the details on the Tour page, updated daily with new locations. To All My Dear Friends will be traveling all through the Eastern United States over the next few months!

transparent-voyages-small

Wow. Can you believe it? We did it! Here is the thank you letter from Marc on Kickstarter.com:

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

A few months ago a friend of mine told me about a unique website. He said that people go to this website to donate money for artists in need. I should check it out he said. Yeah sure… I’ll look into it, maybe.

In the last two years of performing my music live, I’ve seen the goodness in people. These people come up to me after shows speaking of the strong emotions they experienced through my performance. Tears in their eyes, they try to explain their feelings. These people show me their goodness, through love & support.

Thank you to every person that pledged. Thank you to every person that posted this fundraiser on your Facebook & Twitter feeds. Thank you to every person who forwarded an email to a friend.

I want you all to know that this is only the beginning of To All My Dear Friends. And you, with all your love & support, were part of it.

Sincerely with all my heart,
-Marc Hennessey

p.s. See you soon on tour!

procrastinate. procrastinating. procrastinator.

it is 9pm on a sunday and i’m looking for excuses. excuses to preoccupy my time. sure i need to book a national tour. but i also need to eat. maybe i’ll make some dinner. yeah, that’s a great idea.

ok so now my belly is full and sure, i need to book a tour. but… i also need to take a shower. it’s cold out and i could really use a shower anyway. yeah, hygiene is important. and the water would be so very warm.

ok so now it’s 20 minutes later (i also trimmed my nails) and i need to book a tour. but look at this website. it’s been so long since my last journal entry. i should update it with a new post. i’ve been so busy lately doing anything but booking shows that i haven’t had the time to update this journal.

jeez. the procrastinator, who likes to procrastinate, is procrastinating.

-marc

There’s only one week left for our fundraiser on Kickstarter. And if you didn’t know:

THIS IS AN ALL OR NOTHING FUNDRAISER. WE ONLY RECEIVE THE MONEY IF WE REACH OUR GOAL.

That’s right. If we don’t reach our goal of $3500, we don’t see any money. Kickstarter implemented this rule so that your money isn’t “wasted” on underfunded projects and artists don’t have to finish projects with less money than needed. So please help us reach our goal.

Time is running out!

girls are weird. and on that note, guys are weird too. i took off the last couple of days from work.

(yes, this is working. it’s like a full time job)

but in the process of enjoying my “weekend off”, i managed to burn a large hole in my living room carpet. my accomplice to the burning gave me a beautiful wooden necklace which i plan on keeping with me at all times while on tour. because you know what? once i’ve traveled far away from the burnt carpet, i’ll need something to remind me of what sex can do to a person if they’re not careful.

on a more positive note, i’m still afraid to make that first phone call. in my mind, that first phone call solidifies everything. booking a tour is scary. but i’ll get the hang of it eventually and probably even start enjoying it (like everything else involved in this music making scheme of mine).

ok, so not a scheme. but whatever.

oh so i figured that my cute “manual map up on the wall” method was a little outdated for booking a tour. so i switched it over to google maps. apparently you can make custom maps with color coordinated pins and everything. google, you rule. i’m not taking the map down off my wall though. i like staring at it in disbelief. it’s almost like meditating (or procrastinating).

google-map

-marc