Block printing on T-shirts

With Maia

In the past I've organized summer art camps for kids, and I'd like to do another one this summer. Art Camp is meant to be first of all fun, to awaken the artist in everyone attending, and to allow kids to experience and experiment with different media and types of art they won't get to experience at school. When doing an art camp, what better way of introducing the kids to block printing (and also creating a lasting, tangible memory), than making a themed T-shirt to go home with?! I carve the block myself and then I like to involve them in the printing process, and it has always been a highlight of the camp experience.

Pulling the first shirt

I'll need all the help I can get this summer, and having an assistant that knows the ropes and loves art would be a great advantage. Maia is the daughter of a friend of mine, a tinkerer in her own right, and she's interested in helping out. Recently she came over to help with a T-shirt printing "practice run"; here's a short video of the process.

Maia and the first completed T-shirt

Also, a word about the Derby hat . . . if a cowboy has a cowboy hat, a chef is recognized by his toque blanche, and a fireman has his helmet, then certainly a tinkerer needs to have some sort of "head gear." Since the term "Tinkerer" itself is one that implies being a "Jack-of-all-trades", or a person wearing "many hats", then, in my humble opinion, such a person can wear any hat they like! And it just so happened that on that day, I felt like wearing my special Derby hat, which is over 100 years old. It was crafted in my hometown of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. When I transferred it onto Maia's head, I was symbolically bestowing on her the title of Tinkerer Extraordinaire!

A solemn moment (just for laughs)