Three Rants (of a Crafty/Costumy Nature)
First: Yudu Screenprinting Machine
After some poking at JoAnn.com, my math tells me that with double discount, this baby will be about $210 for me. Plus some extra inks, and probably a screen or an emulsion sheet pack. If I make it through to the holidays without it, I can probably catch a slight sale AND double discount.
There is a lot of excitement about this machine on Etsy. And there is a lot of annoyance about this machine other places. Lots of people whining about the cost and saying that they have no use for it. In all honesty, I think ProvoCraft may have gone the wrong way marketing it as a make-you-own-t-shitrs machine. Yeah, it has that use too... but there is so much more to be done with it. I think tote-bags and such, as well as the various papercrafting uses will end up being bigger draws. Granted... I like the idea of a personalized t-shirt as much as the next girl (And I have a couple of ideas), but even I can see that $300 is a bit extreme if all you want is a shirt that says 'i <3 babys' or 'Go Vikings' or the like.
Anyway... the way I see it, I'm getting to the end of the second project in two years that could have been done quite nicely with a machine like this. And I'm looking at Tomomori's Izayoiki shirt, Kiyomori's pants and noshi, many tennis uniforms and potentially the yellow Arashi set - all of which are great candidates for screen printing if I got good at it. And.... I have the employee discount advantage, and the sense that buying this is a win for my store as well as myself, so... yeah.
[Special Order Info, for me mostly:
*Yudu Machine (SKU#1373828) - $299.99
*Gold Ink (SKU#1373877) - $10.99
*Extra Screen (SKU#1373927) - $25.99
*Emulsion Remover Bottle (SKU#1373943) - $7.99
*Extra Emulsion Sheets (SKU#1373935) - $18.99
*Also available are Extra Transparencies, Sets of pre-printed transparencies, sets of basic ink colors, extra squeegees and more.]
Kiyomori (Yes this costume is on my list, so I'm obsessing a little...)
-Actually floating balls (and neutal sheens on most layers)
-Nice crown and a lovely jaquard for the noshi, though there's no printing on it.
-Best wings!
-The designs in iron-on rather than paint
-In which the craftsmanship looks great, but I disagree with materials.
-A shame it's all shiny satin.
-See, matte textures can look nice, though I like details too...
Kagetoki
-Interesting pants, satin coat
-Great wig, velvet gloves and shirt. (Also, there /might/ be boots there... maybe)
-When good plans are not well-coordinated (also, giant gun!)
-Nice jacket detail (I wish there were better pics)
-Hmmm (This one looks the most like ours of any one I've seen.)
-No boots ;_;
-Almost boots?
Tomomori (Regular/Full Armor)
-Mmm... brooding
-Good view of hip armor
-Excellent angle of more nice armor
-Some reds are... too red (gorgeous brocade pants though)
-Built swords (sadly bad angle)
-Wow, shiny.
-Deffinitely stiff armor on this one (another pic)
-Another one that took a year to make it.
-Shiny armor again. (I wish my Japanese was good enough to ask for ideas on armoring technique from some of these girls.)
-Half-back with some nice armor
-A less dramatic alternative
-Last one (overall pretty. I wish they weren't so afraid of real poofy pants though.)
Randomly, there was a very nice Izayoiki Masaomi + Tomomori set in this category too... >.>
[Edit Edit: Sorry for badly borked html. All better now, except for a couple of pictures that I haven't uploaded yet.]
After some poking at JoAnn.com, my math tells me that with double discount, this baby will be about $210 for me. Plus some extra inks, and probably a screen or an emulsion sheet pack. If I make it through to the holidays without it, I can probably catch a slight sale AND double discount.
There is a lot of excitement about this machine on Etsy. And there is a lot of annoyance about this machine other places. Lots of people whining about the cost and saying that they have no use for it. In all honesty, I think ProvoCraft may have gone the wrong way marketing it as a make-you-own-t-shitrs machine. Yeah, it has that use too... but there is so much more to be done with it. I think tote-bags and such, as well as the various papercrafting uses will end up being bigger draws. Granted... I like the idea of a personalized t-shirt as much as the next girl (And I have a couple of ideas), but even I can see that $300 is a bit extreme if all you want is a shirt that says 'i <3 babys' or 'Go Vikings' or the like.
Anyway... the way I see it, I'm getting to the end of the second project in two years that could have been done quite nicely with a machine like this. And I'm looking at Tomomori's Izayoiki shirt, Kiyomori's pants and noshi, many tennis uniforms and potentially the yellow Arashi set - all of which are great candidates for screen printing if I got good at it. And.... I have the employee discount advantage, and the sense that buying this is a win for my store as well as myself, so... yeah.
[Special Order Info, for me mostly:
*Yudu Machine (SKU#1373828) - $299.99
*Gold Ink (SKU#1373877) - $10.99
*Extra Screen (SKU#1373927) - $25.99
*Emulsion Remover Bottle (SKU#1373943) - $7.99
*Extra Emulsion Sheets (SKU#1373935) - $18.99
*Also available are Extra Transparencies, Sets of pre-printed transparencies, sets of basic ink colors, extra squeegees and more.]
Kiyomori (Yes this costume is on my list, so I'm obsessing a little...)
-Actually floating balls (and neutal sheens on most layers)
-Nice crown and a lovely jaquard for the noshi, though there's no printing on it.
-Best wings!
-The designs in iron-on rather than paint
-In which the craftsmanship looks great, but I disagree with materials.
-A shame it's all shiny satin.
-See, matte textures can look nice, though I like details too...
Kagetoki
-Interesting pants, satin coat
-Great wig, velvet gloves and shirt. (Also, there /might/ be boots there... maybe)
-When good plans are not well-coordinated (also, giant gun!)
-Nice jacket detail (I wish there were better pics)
-Hmmm (This one looks the most like ours of any one I've seen.)
-No boots ;_;
-Almost boots?
Tomomori (Regular/Full Armor)
-Mmm... brooding
-Good view of hip armor
-Excellent angle of more nice armor
-Some reds are... too red (gorgeous brocade pants though)
-Built swords (sadly bad angle)
-Wow, shiny.
-Deffinitely stiff armor on this one (another pic)
-Another one that took a year to make it.
-Shiny armor again. (I wish my Japanese was good enough to ask for ideas on armoring technique from some of these girls.)
-Half-back with some nice armor
-A less dramatic alternative
-Last one (overall pretty. I wish they weren't so afraid of real poofy pants though.)
Randomly, there was a very nice Izayoiki Masaomi + Tomomori set in this category too... >.>
[Edit Edit: Sorry for badly borked html. All better now, except for a couple of pictures that I haven't uploaded yet.]