Just thought I'd share. It turned out pretty good for my first attempt. I did four prints, two with minor mess and two that turned out good.

Not so sure if it deserves a thread, but that's cool, dude. Also epic beard! I would actually wear it, you're about the same size as me and fuckin' Bolt Thrower!

I have a feeling that I know why you chose Bolt Thrower... Much easier than trying to hunt down an original!

Fucking epic man!
How did you print it on your t shirt? I would love to start making me some of those.

Very much so.




Just the standard emulsion printing. One bigger screen for front, one for the back.

yeah man, great job. I'd definitely buy that. I wonder if bands mind if the prints are for yourself and not for sale. It's free advertising.

I think it's a copyright infringement, bootlegging. I think bands condemn much more to merch bootlegging than cd's since they make a major cut off the shirt sales than cd's. Remember that extreme metal bands earn money for real just playing live and selling shirts, the album sellings goes like 99% to the label.

That's not totally true anymore, especially if they're touring. Venues and promoters, in a lot of cases, have started demanding cuts from the merch sales, sometimes as much as 15-25%. If they're selling online, they're a little better off, but touring and merch sales while touring aren't always the huge revenue generators people think they are...

Wouldn't bootlegging be if you sold them? This is basically fan art, the way I look at it.

Nice work. Looks really clean.

dat beard

that looks great! I did one of quorthon, you know that shit where hes all bent back yelling into a mic? Took a long time, I'm far from home right now or id look for it and post it.
My friend and I built a press long ago to do that shit, but after finishing building it we never used it... Once

Cool I've wanted to print my own t-shirts. I make mock-up designs of my art on tees. But just haven't made a personal one.

thats an awesome design!!

First of all, nice beard.

I believe that this is more so free-advertising. Of course, it would be bootlegging if you went out and sold them for some ridiculous price. If it's a personal thing, and you wear to support, then it is not different than wearing a plain black t-shirt. I'm sure most bands, Including Bolt Thrower (Because the dudes from BT are really chill/cool guys) wouldn't mind this, especially if you sent this in on their website or facebook page or whatever. It's basically fan-art, in the same way some people draw bands' logos, album arts and whatever and try to show off. It's total support and moral advertising.

Also, cheers on your first attempt! It seems a bit small for such a large shirt, but at least it didn't explode in the process or whatever.

Didnt know / never heard about that.
I do know that a lot of bands are offered 360 deals nowadays, because of the declining record sales.
this means that the label gets their cut from every bit of money the band makes, which include shirts as well.


cool shirt bro

I did a few T-shirts as well, I wanted to do metal shirts and even have the designs for Soilwork, Aborym, Borknagar but never made it happen. Instead I did those:

South Park T shirt. And I have the letters "T & P" in Blue and Red colours on diff shirt I printed.

No, I'm not high.

Was made for my Bro's GF.

Self explanatory.

That's awesome!
(especially the shirts above!)
I'd love to learn how to screen print stuff. Does it cost much?

I did a cost analysis of how much exactly I invested into it - around 250$. The cost might be much lower but then it cuts into the convenience - I rather spend another 100$ just so I don't have to hustle and worry about wasting more materials.

The process is not as easy as Google shows it. For once you need to get your design going - If you want to print a hand drawn smiley on the shirt then you are ok otherwise I do all the stuff in Photoshop or draw on a tablet and then print it on acetate paper (basically see through plastic on which you print using a regular black cartage printer) once your design is ready you need to make a screen.

I just buy 4 canvas frames, then you need to buy the screen - there are 3 types I think, more holes for detailed work, less holes less detailed work. The screen is the most expensive part - I bought like 5 meters and it cost me like 120$. If you are making a screen 14" x 14" you need around half a square meter.

Then assemble them together - a tedious process - you need one of those industrial staplers. Some stores sell screen on a frame already, I build my own.

Then you need photo emulsion - you apply it on the screen, let it dry in darkness. then you need to buy a special 150 watt bulb. 8$ in pro photo shops like Henry's, photo emulsion has strict directions on how high the light should be away from the screen for exposure - usually like 12-17 inches. there is a chart in my booklet.

So now you get your acetate paper with the design, put it on the screen, put the light on top. I might get a heavy piece of glass or clear plastic to put over the acetate so its sitting flash to the screen. If it doesn't the light would start hardening the photo emulsion in undesired locations of the design. Once the exposure had been done, you start washing the screen, pretty tedious job because you need like a pressure wash to get the photo emulsion out of the screen. You acetate design was blocking the light from the photo emulsion from hardening so now its washing off. So it basically washes out and everything else is hard. So now you got your "negative" design on the screen.

Now that the screen is ready - you need like a squidgy to apply the paint, you need the paint itself a good broad table to work on. You put the screen on the shirt, put a thick line of paint at the beginning, take the squidgy and push it through the screen. Basically the paint would go through the little holes and make an imprint on the shirt. You let it dry and then must iron the shirt. Otherwise the paint would come off when you wash it.

Thats more or less the process - there are many little nasty details to remember that I skipped, like drying times, washing times, this and that.

As far as I remember money wise:

Acetate - 30$ for like 25 sheets.
Canvas frames, varies on the size is from 12$ to like 22$
Screen - maybe i'm wrong but it was quite alot, I think i paid 100$ or so for the 4-5 meters I got.
photo emulsion was about 30$ or so.
bulb and socket for it was about 20$.
Paint and squidgy and this and that - I bought a kit which was like another 40$.

Now some people want to re use a screen and wipe off their design, basically some bleach like substance that you apply to remove the photo emulsion. very tedious work and smelly. I rather just buy a new canvas frame and spend some money on a new screen.

Thats sort of what I remember as of today. In the states all these materials are way cheaper..... so.

Although a proud owner of two original bolt thrower shirts (fuck yeah, europe) I must say: this shirt fucking rocks, good work! Props for using the old-school BT logo!

cool, i've wanted to start doing this for some of the more underground bands i listen to who don't have shirts or have shirts that are hard to find.