How it's Made | Creation of the Pickled Mess
Creation of our Pickled Mess Design
Hi! I'm Tash (see embarrassing photo of me bellow) and I'm here to give you an insight into how we create our weird and wacky products here at Pickled Brain Clothing!
This short blog will take you through each step of how our latest product, the “Pickled Mess” design was created. Why would I tell you this you may ask? Well I for one love to see how products are made for various reasons; One, it shows that a lot of time and thought has been put into the product in order to create a quality garment. Two, it gives an insight into how that product is produced showing that it is ethical (unlike some fast fashion brands that we wont name.) And lastly, it's interesting, to see the process of how your garment is made and understand the work that has gone into its creation. So lest get started!
It all starts with a piece of paper and a pencil! I basically just sat down and drew whatever came from my “pickled brain”, adding in a few pickled brain classics such as our “Tiny Alien” and “The Fly”. Once the initial drawing was completed it was time for a splash of colour! I did this but putting the line drawing into Photoshop and then adding colour and shading to each section of the design.
Hand line drawing and adding colour.
Now time for the tricky part! Converting the design into separate colour layers for screen printing. We decided that for the best result, we would go with a 4 colour process, which basically means you use C (cyan), Y (yellow), M (magenta), K ( Black) and then White. So the design is essentially split into those 4 colours and White to make 5 screens. We decided this would give the best result for this design as it consisted of too many colours to print each one, so with 4 colour process the ink is transparent so each colour is layed on top of one and other to create the desired colour. If you'd like to read more about this process here is a great article that explains it! https://wickedprintingstuff.wordpress.com/2021/05/25/cmyk-explained/
Separating the C,M,Y,K Layers in Photoshop
So once the computer software had done its thing, these 5 layers are then printed in black onto film ( see images below) each film is then placed into an exposure unit where the image is then exposed onto a screen. Once the screen is ready and taped up its now time to set up the machine to print! However, sometimes things don't quite go as planned, we had a slight issue, there was too much cyan (blue) in the design; hence why the banana is looking somewhat green ( not quite ripe?) Luckily this is an easy fix, just a matter of reducing the amount of cyan in certain parts of the design and then creating a new screen for that colour. Then after all that we can begin printing the final product!
C,M,Y,K and White Films
Print with a bit too much cyan
Printing and ink curing process
Once the ink has been printed an cured, it's now time for the finishing touches. Embroidery for the front of the hoodies. I always like to use either a recycled polyester or biodegradable lyocell thread in an effort to make our products as sustainable as possible. Then all that's left to do is to add our signature hem labels.
Embroidery and hem labeling
Check out our Pickled Mess Hoodie and Tee!
Thank you for reading and checking out our website!