Octoprints: Burning the Octopus and Bringing it to Life

My screen was all emulsified and dried out. (Holy crap emulsified is a real word? It didn't show up as misspelled.)

I laid out my octopus and turned on my makeshift lightbox. I'm going to make a nice lightbox soon, I hope. Finally, a good use for those reference materials - weights to press the screen on top of the transparency.

I chose to use the Cardinal Blue shirt because I can't see an octopus being on anything but blue. The ink is a darker blue that looks really great but honestly I was afraid to do blue on blue - I wanted it to really pop off the shirt, since the design is so simple. It was blue ink vs. white ink. Sam voted for blue ink, and so it was decided.


And of course, like a few or us were talking about on the Etsy forum, the nerve racking part where you actually have to print was kind of touch and go. The details on the octo were so minute that I had a hard time getting the ink through. It took way more force than I expected, and quite a few swipes. The first one I did on Cardinal Blue was only half there, and the first one I did on a girls gray shirt was only half there too.

So what do you do when a print goes wrong?

Freak the fuck out. Check.
Panic. Check.
Make some self deprecating comments. Check.
Take it to the sink, pour detergent on it and scrub like a madman. Check.















Let me tell you. There is nothing more terrifying than orange ink. It washes out of everything, but just seeing it pour into the sink, or all over my hands makes me think that I'll be the color of toxic carrot juice permanently. They used to call me Oompa Loompa in grade school. I can't go through that again.