thinking about dye sublimation

Making plans that involve aquiring dye sublimation capabilities is exciting but also daunting.   This is not a simple thing.  Supplies required:
Dye Sublimation printer (basically an ink jet printer but BIG - like able to print 5 feet wide) ~ $20000 to $250000   and the inks are around $300 per litre
Industrial large format heat press.  Roughly the size and weight of a small car and requiring special electrical outlets.  These things don't run off your computer power bar.   Approximate cost $20000.
So, not cheap.  But with this equipment, the sky is the limit for sports wear.   I think the first thing I'll make is a full body suit that looks like Iron Man.   Then Optimus Prime.   Then maybe some more practical team wear.

In the meantime, I'm working on a plan to standardize training for the kind of sewing required for high performance stretch gear.  Obviously I can't keep doing it myself indefinitely.  There's a reason that not everybody makes their own spandex outfits at home.  It's tricky to work with and if you want to make things that last for years, you need to know what you're doing.  Maybe I'll start a sewing school attached to Row West.  

Setting up ecommerce should be easier

Today's challenge for creating a functional shopping environment is figuring out the best way to configure shipping costs.   Although the majority of Row West customers are from North America, there are some from overseas. Figuring out the best way to handle shipping isn't easy.  Right now the site will charge you the same amount of shipping for a unisuit as for a decal.  Clearly a problem.

The other issue to be handled will be team uniforms - many of which end up being ordered individually but shipped to a single club address, hopefully lowering the cost per person involved in the order.

Today's other fun activities included ordering forest green fabric.  Because it's a custom colour, the minimum order is 350 metres.   That ends up being around 8 large rolls of material and will last for around 2 years.   It takes approximately 8 weeks to get it in, so I have time to set aside the necessary funds to cover such a large order.  Fortunately, I don't need to do this for many colours.

I've been looking around for photos of athletes that I can use as fashion models for clothing sketches.   This initial sketch allows me to try out various clothing designs.   The photo I worked from is of a track and field athlete.

All done with this.  Saving it to use with a future comic strip project.

Almost done the thin line work.   Once this is done, I'm going to try some actual rowing-related drawings.

Heavy Metal.

This is a sketch in progress. I've been trying to come up with some vehicle artwork and I like this Hummer HX concept car.   Kind of the like the Rally Fighter (possibly the coolest looking independently manufactured vehicle).   Working on mechanical linework actually helps when switching back to more organic style art.   Will post this sketch in a few phases until it's done.

This has nothing to do with clothing - obviously.   Unless anyone wants a giraffe-print rowing uniform.  Just practicing sketching.

digital wood chopping

Continuing to add products to the new website.   It's not the easiest process.  Every product has to be presented visually - whether that's by photo or computer generated graphic.  Aside from prepping those images, I also have to decide on all the available options for each product and figure out the most logical way to present them. 

The new site uses a Joomla! foundation with Redshop as the functioning shopping interface.  It was constructed by Chris Clay at Digital Bloom.  Chris has been really good to work with.   I designed the look of the site and he recreated that look with functionality.   I'm a bit fussy about keeping the look clean and simple and Chris has been very patient with my requests for tweaks.   Hopefully Row West customers will like it as well.

The only thing I wish I had on the site, but don't, is the ability to interface Flash graphics with the shopping cart so that people could see how their colour choices will look on the product.   I'll work on figuring that out once the site is up and running.

It's a new year.

It's a new year and Row West has been in business now for 14 years.  That's a lot of spandex out the door.  I think on average I make around 3 or 4 thousand pieces of clothing each year.   Sometimes it makes me feel tired.   Right now, I'm working on orders for Canadian West Coast juniors.  And with a new feature on the clothing, I'm adding last names to the gear with the goal of reducing loss and theft in the boathouse.  

I'm also adding products to a new ecommerce website that I hope to have up and running by the end of this month.   This should simplify the ordering process and really, it's WAY overdue.

Working on some new designs that will be introduced with the new website as well.  

I'm also making efforts to work on my drawing skills, which can get rusty when you spend too much time on the sewing machine and not enough time with the pen and pencil.   I'll post some sketches here soon.