I am resurrecting a t-shirt project that my dad and I created back in 2002 to raise money for the ministry/daycare ministry my parents founded. The collection had a two by two biblical theme and consisted of 6 animal pairs: Elephants, Giraffes, Moths, Fox, Panda Bears, and Centipedes. At that time, we had silk screening equipment for my dad's sign and apparel business set up in my basement. All in all, the t-shirts were a hit. The majority of the daycare kids and their parents and a lot of grandparents had one or two of the designs. All in all, it was a fun little project. I have drawings somewhere of other animal pairs that were to be added to the collection. Unfortunately, that never happened. We sold the equipment and dealt only in athletic and company logo apparel, which was either outsourced or made via heat transfer.
We held onto the screens for a lot of my original art and designs, with a hope of someday.
When my dad was diagnoses with stage 4 colon cancer, he slowed down, even with my brother helping him, it was too much. My brother took over when my dad passed, but eventually the business faded out. I thought all the screens were gone - until my sister sent me a picture of the screen for the elephants. I was so excited, and I wasn't the only one.
My cousin Joel passed away suddenly, a few years ago and he loved elephants - they were his spirit animal. When I posted a picture of the screen on social media - his mom (my aunt) and sister (my cousin) along with his girlfriend asked to have t-shirts made in his honor. I was more than happy to do it. But how? I was 10 hours away from the screen and the picture my sister sent made it difficult to replicate the design. I made several attempts to no avail. On a recent trip, I was able to bring the screen back with me. Because I not set up to screen print on clothing, I pulled a print with acrylic paint onto paper, scanned it into my design programs and waa-laa. I sent the design off to be printed and fulfilled my families request. Finally. I even had more requests once the shirts were made. Although this is a kid friendly design, it's the adults who are wearing them.
My siblings and I believed that the other screens were sold at my parent's garage sale before they sold their house and dissolved the ministry. The only reason the elephant screen was found is because my dad gave it to my niece. BUT as luck would have it, not long after I pulled the print shown above, my sister sent me another photo of three more screens she had found her attic; the foxes, the centipedes, and the giraffes. I knew he didn't get rid of all of them. I am making a trip to Indiana this fall and will be retrieving those screens and making more prints to revive the collection in part. Who knows, maybe the moths and panda bears will show up, eventually. As far as the other drawings I mentioned ??? I really don't know where they are. They could be with my dad's things, they could be with mine. If I find them, I find them. I know one is a dragonfly and the other is a lion and lioness. And if I find them, I may consider printing them up, too.
