My Hobbies

KBT is first quality designer fabric. KBT Fabrics has consistently offered the interior design market quality products, designed for today’s lifestyles, while keeping the focus on excellent value and customer service. Many customers return to KBT fabrics because of the fine customer service. They go out of their way to make sure you get the satisfaction of a fine fabric you are looking for. There are lots of benefits to working with a family owned company. These people know their customers by name and often remember what you are looking for and your expectations in fabrics. Service is one of the lost arts in business these days and it is refreshing to find a company that still offers good old fashioned customer service such as this one.

KBT Fabrics is the fastest growing company in the industry today. They have five companies and more than 25,000 sku’s in inventory. They are positioned to cater to the fabric needs of the world. They have expanded recently into luxury woven textiles which offer the finest in design and the most premium quality. This exclusive line of textiles is trend setting and give the designer the ability to create the most prestigious environments. This attracts many interior designers from around the world in to the showrooms. Browse online for a glimpse of some of these fine fabrics as well.

Colors compliment the KBT Fabrics line. With a color-coordinated selection of tassels, cords, brush fringes and bullions, trimmings help designers create individual style. Look for your perfect tassel or cord in the KBT line of fabrics and trimmings. Use the colors offered for your next project . You will be so glad you did.

Additionally KBT Fabrics has a strong hold in the hospitality market. They focus on and meet all the industry standards. It is a sophisticated style and an extensive color palette. Many hotels and businesses use these fine fabrics to suit their needs where lots of traffic is concerned. The standard is high and the durability is long lasting. These fabrics exceed all expectations.

Servicing more than 40 countries world wide, KBT Fabrics has entered emerging markets including Russia and China and has gained brand recognition throughout the world. With more than 280 employees, KBT is headquartered in Bay Shore , New York, where they maintain offices, customer service and a large warehouse. They proudly hold a solid position in the marketplace and continue to grow at an aggressive rate. They are always looking for new opportunities to bring to the market the best in fabrics to meet the needs of the interior design community.

Their products can be purchased through many of their showrooms or sales representatives nationwide. Also fabrics can be purchased online . Ask your interior designer about KBT Fabrics. She or he will be happy to use them in your next design project. You will be glad you did.

Our challenge as craftsmen and intarsia artists is to discover our markets. You need to know your market, who is your customer? Are you selling a product to local or global customers.

If you’re selling to local customers say out of a storefront, you must know if you are in the right market and selling at the right price for this local customer. If you’re not showing the right product to the right customer base, chances are there will not be any sales, are at least very few.

It only makes sense that If your selling a product that is not of use to the customer and its not something that they see they want or need, you had better find either different markets or a different product to sell from your store.

I use to have a shop that sold simple crafts like little animal yard and driveway signs. I sold lots of country style decorative items for the interiors of their homes. These items sold well because I was living in a rural area where my customers had big yards and long driveways. These people loved the country style of decorating. They loved the crafts I was making for them. I had other craftsmen producing items for me to sell for them. I was producing and selling to my market base.

If I was trying to sell the country style signs or plaques where I am living now, in the city, I would not do so well. For my customer base is not the same. Their yards are different, their driveway is short and their interior decorating may not be the same kind of “country style.” So for this new customer base you have to change your product line.

Does your product fit into the decorating scheme of most of your customers, if not very few are going to buy. You must be certain that your craft fits with your prospects or your business will fail. You must take the time to study this. Find the proper market place.

Crafts people are used in having friends and loved ones telling them how cool and how beautiful there craft is, this is encouraging. The problem is that it’s not realistic. You need to get input and about your product from a source that will give you a helpful honest response about your product.

When your customers come into your shop and say how much they like what you’re doing but walk out without buying anything you have to ask yourself, what’s wrong?

Are you in the right market for the craft you sell?

If your craft fits your customer, how is your price? The price you sell your product for may need to be adjusted up or down.

For the price setting you need to look at your competition. At what price are they selling a comparable product. Ask yourself can I make a profit selling my product at that price. Can I sell my product and get a higher price? What can I do to make my product worth more money?

I now sell art, “intarsia woodworking art” that is higher priced, which means for the customer to let go of the money, she will have to really love your product.

Crafts, can be a tough market. I am a cabinetmaker, caught up in the world of art. I love to add artistic designs to cabinet doors to make them stand out from what other people build. The cabinets add atmosphere to a room by giving the room character and there by adding value.

I have managed to sell a lot of my work over the years. My prices are usually from about $200 to $15,000 depending on the work involved. As I said before, some time ago I had a craft shop in a small town. I built every wood craft I could think of to build and it was fun, but not really much money.

The money only comes after you learn the business end of the craft market. As a cabinetmaker I have learned the hard way that you must get paid for the hours that you work, even when you love the work.  

How much should I charge for my work?

It’s basically the same for most businesses, how much do you want to pay yourself per hour. Just add to that a percentage for overhead plus a percentage for profit and add material cost. That gives you a charging rate for all of your products. You must add the profit, that gives you the money to grow, like buying more tools. My charging rate depends on if it’s commercial or residential, $45-$85 per hour depending on how custom the work is. In my old “craft shop” my charging rate, at that time, was $35 hour, the price fit the product and the overhead.

If you can sell your craft as “ART” it will increase the amount you can charge for your product. Perceived value! Do you have awards! Do you have newspaper and magazine articles about you! Do you have references? Have you developed a recognizable name for your market? If not, you need to work towards these things. All of this adds to the perceived value of your craft.

Intarsia woodworking is my craft, my art. It’s the work I look forward to doing. Find the craft you love to make, find the correct customer base, set a reasonable price for your work and your on your way to a successful satisfying life.

It seems that one of the most common problems new screen printers run into is printing white ink. I’ve heard a lot of questions like: Why do all my other colors print fine and white is so tough? Why is it that my white ink is so thick? Why can’t I get a smooth white ink? It’s always rough and seems to have texture to it. Is there anything I can do to thin my white ink to make it easier to print? Also comments like: “Our white ink is bad, it comes off after only a couple of washes.” “There’s something wrong with my press, it prints fine when I am printing on white shirts, but when I print on dark shirts the white ink is very blurry.”

Unfortunately, the answers to these quarries usually lie in the printer themselves. No, your white ink isn’t defecting, your press probably works fine, and you shouldn’t need to thin the ink. Yes, you probably need to change some variables and techniques during the printing process. The truth of the mater is, the answer is in the question all along.

So why does the screen printing process work fine for a while and then as soon as you start printing white ink, smash, a road block. The truth is, you may have been doing the wrong things the whole time, it just didn’t show up yet . It’s like swimming, sure you can dog paddle and flounder around the pool all day. However, when it comes to swimming a long distance, without the proper techniques you’ll work twice as hard and get half as far.

Printing on light garments is much easier than printing white on dark garments. On a light garment, not as much ink is required to achieve good coverage. Also many times you’re working with thinner inks. Ink varies in viscosity according to how much pigment it has in it. For instance, a black ink is almost always going to be printed on lighter colors, the pigments needed for the black to show up are considerably less then the pigments needed for a white ink to cover a dark garment. Thus, you’re black ink is much thinner and easier to work with. You can do almost every technique wrong when printing black ink on a white shirt, and there’s still a good chance that your final print will look pretty good. Since the ink is thinner, it passes through the screen mesh much easier, with less force, and clears the screen better. (For those unfamiliar with the term “clearing the screen,” this defines the point when all ink is cleared out of the screen mesh and properly transferred to the shirt.)

So basically when setting up a screen printing job that requires black ink on a white shirt, you can use the wrong screen mesh, have no off contact, and print with the completely wrong squeegee technique and still get an “OK” looking final print. However, if these same wrong techniques are tried when printing white ink, uh oh, game over! The unfortunate thing is, many printers start out this way and teach themselves completely wrong. In fact, this is how I learned. It’s not the end of the world though!

The first thing you’ll have to understand and come to terms with is the fact that white ink is probably going to be the thickest ink you’ll ever use. To achieve a bright white image on a black shirt, the ink has to be opaque which in turn means thicker. Sure you can find thinner white inks, or try to reduce the thicker ones, however you’re defeating the purpose and you’ll end up printing twice as much to try and achieve the same result. On the other hand, if you learn how to print correctly, then printing white is like taking a walk in the park.

Over the past several years, every ink manufacturer in the country has been on the hunt for the “best” white ink on the market. Yes, they’ve come a long way. In fact twenty or thirty years ago white on black looked more like a light tan or gray than white. Now with inks available like Triangle Phoenix White or International Coatings White, you can achieve maximum coverage with minimal passes. Still, white ink has to be loaded with pigment which means it will always have a high viscosity.

So what’s the trick? How can you print white ink like the pros.? The answer usually lies in a few simple changes to your setup and technique. Apply these changes and really, it’s not that hard.

Before we delve into techniques, let’s first discuss a little bit about pre press and setup.

To properly setup a job using white ink you first must understand a little bit on how to select the proper mesh size. Because white is thicker, you want to print through the lowest proper mesh size that applies to that print. If you try and print white through a higher mesh screen which has much smaller holes in it its going to make it much harder to push the ink through the screen. It’s also not going to allow as much ink through the screen as a lower mesh would.

Typically you want to print white through mesh sizes ranging from 110-156. Granted sometimes the image dictates a high mesh count. For instance, since a half tone or fine line drawing cannot hold on a lower mesh screen, you’ll have to use a high mesh frame and apply more passes to achieve a bright white. For the most part however, you’ll want to use the lower meshes so that a larger amount of ink is deposited on the shirt.

The second part of setup is to insure the screen is adjusted properly on the press. You want to be sure that you have a proper off contact of about 1/8-1/16 of an inch. Since white is a little thicker, you may want to go with a slightly higher off contact then normal, perhaps around 1/8 of an inch. Off contact is the height between the screen mesh and the substrate you are printing on.

Proper off contact also allows the ink to be cleared from the screen mesh easily by releasing the mesh upward directly after the print stroke leaving all the ink smoothly on the shirt. One thing that you also want to be sure to apply when printing white ink is an off contact tab. This is a small piece of material (ie. a penny, cardboard, paper, a piece of plastic) that is the height of your off contact. This tab is placed on the end of the screen frame where it hits the top of the neck platen and not the shirt. By using an off contact tab, you insure that your off contact will remain through the entire print stroke.

The tab keeps the end of the screen up although you are pushing down on the mesh during the stroke. Without an off contact tab, you may find that you have a harder time clearing the mesh because the screen wants to stay flat against the shirt with ink stuck in it.

If you don’t have the proper off contact a few problems could arise. If your off contact is too low then you will not be able to clear the screen properly. You should see the screen mesh bounce off the shirt and be able to see the ink and the shirt through a cleared screen mesh. If your ink stays in the screen mesh and the screen mesh sticks to the shirt, when you pull the screen up your ink will look very rough and parts may pull back off the shirt. If you’re having this problem you may need to raise the off contact a little bit. Also, this problem could arise from your actual print stroke which will be discussed later.

On the other end of the spectrum, if you’re off contact is too high; you’ll have to push down extremely hard on the squeegee in order to get all the ink down onto the shirt. I’ve been out to shops to help customers who literally had almost a half of inch of off contact. If your off contact is too high, not only will it be hard to transfer the ink onto the shirt, but there’s a good chance that your screen won’t come down in the same spot every time. This could cause a blurry image or double images after a flashing. A proper off contact is extremely important for a good looking image and an easy print.

Next let’s take a look at technique. The majority of the technique in the screen printing process involves the print stroke. This includes squeegee angle, pressure, speed and release. That standard tendency of a new printer is to literally smash the ink through the screen by pulling the squeegee across the screen with an extremely low angle.

When using thin inks, this impropertechnique could work because the ink passes through the screen so easily. However, if tried with white, you’ll not only have trouble passing the ink through the screen but also have very blurry images because you’re pulling the screen mesh so hard. Your squeegee should actually be about an 80-85 degree angle facing toward you. You should also focus your pressure over and down on the print and not on pulling the squeegee against the mesh.

.

Many new printers stand back from the press, you actually need to stand over the press to focus your pressure down and not back. When your pressure is focused down, then you simply move the squeegee back over the print. With the proper squeegee angle, all of the ink will properly shear through the image and over your screen. In fact you should be able to run your finger over the design after its printed and barely any ink should show up on your finger.

Now let’s talk about the speed of your print. When we instruct printers to use the proper squeegee angle and pressure, the first impulse they have is to move the squeegee about the speed of a turtle. If your speed is too slow you won’t be able to properly release and clear the screen. After a print stoke, many beginners tend to sit back and look at their print, then slowly pull up on the squeegee not allowing the screen mesh to bounce back up leaving ink still stuck in the screen. After a faster stroke, you need to almost give the screen a little pop in order to get the mesh to bounce back up leave a smooth crisp print on your shirt. This is achieved by a simple flick of the wrist, the same flick you would make to insure that you pick up all the ink on your squeegee blade. Only to create this pop and release the screen, the flick must be done a little faster.

Finally, when flashing in between passes, you must wait until the shirt cools down a little until you print again. This is much easier to achieve on a multiple station press because it allows the pallets to cool down. On a single station press you may have to wait a few moments and wave your hand across the pallet to cool it down.

If the ink is too hot from theprevious flash, you may have trouble clearing the screen because the ink will want to stick instead of release the mesh. It could also cause ink to partially cure in the mesh. Since white ink is thicker and you apply more layers of it, you MUST insure a proper final cure.

White ink tends to reflect heat away instead of absorbing it in. This means that the ink and the entire print area must be cured from top to bottom at 320 degrees for about 45 seconds. Obviously the best way to cure white is in a conveyor belt dryer, however if you are using a flash dryer you want to be sure that the whole design gets the same amount of heat.

One of the best ways to insure a proper cure is called the stretch test. Since your white image will be a little thicker, this test is easy to read the results. After your shirt is cured, simply take a small section of your design and stretch it slightly between your fingers. If the design sticks together like plastic and stretches well, then it is cured and you can continue with those curing parameters. However, if the ink cracks or breaks apart, this means the base of the ink is not cured properly and you need to increase yourcuring time for the shirt.

By following these steps and techniques you should find printing white ink a little easier. Granted, because there are so many variables involved in screen printing, you may have to work a little at it and modify slightly. However, after a few times printing the right way, you’ll start seeing better results and have fewer problems.

Learning face painting is great fun but it can take some time to practice so you don’t want to waste time by learning face painting designs that nobody wants right?

So which face painting designs are the most popular? Which face painting designs do they constantly request?

Well, after years of experience in the field, extensive research and surveying I’ve found that there are certain face painting designs that have a proven success rate amongst children, teenagers and even adults!

So, luckily you don’t have to learn the hard way like I did and learn heaps of designs that children didn’t want.

Here are the Top Ten Face Painting Designsfor both Girls and Boys!

Girls:

1. Fantasy

2. Princess

3. Butterfly

4. Fairy

5. Bunny Rabbit

6. Flowers

7. Ladybug

8. Rainbow

9. Cat

10. Witch

Boys:

1. Spider

2. Tribal

3. Monster

4. Skull

5. Robot

6. Pirate

7. Reptile

8. Bat

9. Tiger

10. Puppy Dog

These designs are sure to cover the majority of requests that you’ll receive as a face painter. Children love these designs and so do young at heart adults!

You should remember of course, that although it is important to have a “Top Ten” range of designs that you’ve perfected it pays to keep practicing different face painting designs to have up your sleeves because children go through heaps of fads!

One day they boys are into spiderman and the girls are into the princess diaries, the next day they’re into the pirates of the carribean and mulan and who knows whats next!?

So its a good idea to do your research and find heaps of designs with step-by-step face painting designs guides that you can practice. That way you’ll always have something prepared when the requests come flying in!

There are many coin price guides published; weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and annually. They come in the form of magazines, newsprint, “hot sheets”, and books. All of us have referred to one of these from time to time to ascertain what a particular coin might be worth. Yet, few of us stop to think about what we are getting from any one of these Price Guides, beyond the price or value of a coin. After all, don’t price guides, just give you the price? What else is there?

Basic to an understanding of price guides are two things: 1) the Grade of the Coin; and 2) the Foundation of the price guide. Knowing the Grade of the Coin is required before one can begin. Saying so seems to be obvious, but what more does it mean?

Unless the coin is Graded by an appropriate Professional Grading Company, which has designated what Grade and Identity has been assigned to the coin, most of us are making an assumption about the actual Grade. This assumption we make can be very dangerous because of: a) the difficulty in grading a coin; and, b) the different possible outcomes or results that occur. One Grade “point” or level can make the difference in hundreds or thousands of dollars in the Value of a Coin.

Price Guides assume that YOU already Know the Grade of the Coin. This is why we have the First Rule of Coin Collecting: Know the Grade of Your Coin.

Secondly, ALL Price Guides are founded on the same Principle, which is that the Coin, whose price you are looking up, has been Graded using one Grading Standard. That Grading Standard is set by the ANA – American Numismatic Association – and is entitled the Official Grading Standards For US Coins.

Therefore, ALL Price Guides have a “silent assumption” built in to their guide; which is that the Grade that YOU decide upon, is True or Accurate, and that such Grade is based on the ANA Standards.

The first difficulty that arises is that most people never know if the Grade that they have decided upon is Accurate. Of course, this difficulty never comes into question, if the coin is Professionally Graded by an appropriate company. There are only four (4) reputable Professional Grading companies that strictly follow the Guidelines set by the ANA, and they are: PCGS, NCG, ICG, and ANACS.

The second difficulty arises because of this “silent assumption” or Foundation of all price guides is whether or not the Grade has been decided upon using the Guidelines or Standards established by the ANA. If you don’t have the skills and training of a professional coin grader, the decision is probably questionable.

Even if you do have the skills and training of a professional coin grader, the decision is still probably questionable. Why? Because even professional coin graders have differing opinions. This is why the reputable professional coin grading companies require the opinions of three (3) professional coin graders to arrive at the “Grade” designation to be placed on every coin.

The obvious conclusion is that a Serious Coin Collector is going to invest in rare and modern coins that are graded by one of the Top Four reputable Grading companies. It is the only certain way to eliminate the disagreements and arguments about the Grade of Any coin being Bought or Sold! It is the only certain way one can Value their coin collection. It also eliminates “getting taken” or cheated buying raw coins.

Have fun collecting your Perfect Coins!

Robert L Taylor, JD

Copyright © 2006

Hello Kitty is an animated cat that was created by Sanrio more than 30 years ago. Since her creation, she has become the most popular of the Sanrio characters and the idol of millions of young females in Asia and everywhere else. Today she appears on thousands of different things ranging from teddy bears over toothbrushes to pink electronics.

Hello Kitty was born on the drawing board of Sanrio in Kobe, Japan in 1974. She was designed by the Sanrio employee Ikuko Shimizu, but later the responsibility for her was given to first Setsuko Yonekubo and later Yuko Yamaguchi. In 1975 did she appear for the on her first item, a small plastic coin purse and soon other small items for young girls followed.

The Hello Kitty items was a big success and started to sell very well. Soon after followed American Sanrio shops with Hello Kitty and other popular characters. The first Sanrio shop in America appeared in 1976. Today there are more than 120 official Sanrio shops and more than 3000 affiliate shops.

A special team at Sanrio lead by Yuko Yamaguchi takes care of Hello Kitty, introduces new designs with her image and removes old designs. Every year thousands of new items appear, while an equal number of old items disappear. Most of the items feature Hello Kitty, but it’s also possible to find items with her family and friends.

There are several films, books and more about Hello Kitty and she also have her own fan club. In 1990 did she open her own theme park, Sanrio Puroland, in Japan and there she currently receives around 1.4 million visitors a year. She has even become so popular that she has been named junior ambassador to UNICEF.

Today there seems to be no limitations to the popularity of Hello Kitty. Famous western pop starts and actors have recently started wearing Hello Kitty jewelry, so might easily become in more popular in the coming years. Some of the western pop stars and actors that have been seen with Hello Kitty jewelry include Britney Spears, Mariah Carey, Cameron Diaz and Paris Hilton. Even famous men like Ricky Martin and Steve Tyler have contributed to Hello Kitty’s popularity.

Wool felt or simply felt is a fabric that is formed when a sheep’s wool or an animal fur has been exposed to heat and moisture. This process is hastened by the presence of an alkaline such as soap. The heat and moisture applied on the wool tends to open the outer scales of the fiber and the soap acts like a lubricant agent causing the fibers to slide easily over one another. This natural entanglement then becomes permanent and irreversible due to the chemical bonding of the keratin proteins present on the fibers forming the fabric.

As it is, the process is a fairly simple. This is actually the main advantage of felt making over other textile making techniques; there is a finished product in much lesser time of production.

Humans might have discovered the simple process from the effect of the natural elements on the wool or fur of the animals. There are evidences that early humans used wool to keep their feet warm. Years of walking and stomping on the wool had made it stiff, which eventually turned it into wool felt.

The oldest archaeological evidences of the use of felt were in Turkey. Wall paintings dated back from 6500 BC depicted what seems to be a felt making process. The Romans and the Greeks of the ancient times knew of the uses of wool felt. In fact, Roman soldiers were found to have worn felt breastplates, tunics, boots and even socks as protection from arrows.

The process of felt making did not change much over the years. Varied discoveries during our age, of burial grounds of a nomadic tribal chief in Siberia, a warrior of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, and a body in an old tomb in Norway, all showed marks of wool felt usage as a body wrap.

Today, the felt is widely used in various parts of the world, most especially in areas with harsh and very cold climates. Felt is being used by nomads to make tents called ‘gets or yurts’ in Mongolia. The hats, rugs and other similar items are made of felt in Turkey. Similarly, felt tents, rugs and blankets are used by nomadic tribes in South Central Asia. Felt boots are very famous in Russia and Scandinavia. Felt cloaks called kepeneks are used by Shepherds as protection against the rough climate.

So you signed up for your very first scrapbook crop. Now what? Don’t panic, there are several steps you can take to ensure that your first scrapbook crop will be a success. Planning, organization and packing the right supplies will make your first crop a success.

1. What to Bring:

Must Haves: album, photos, paper, a trimmer, adhesives, embellishments, scissors, markers and other tools (hammers, eyelet setters, etc.)

Optional: cup holder, extra light source, snacks and cash

2. Planning: It is best to plan ahead which pictures you plan on scrapping. Based on your picture selection, gather themed embellishments and paper that you think you will be using.

3. Organization: Once you have planned what items you need, you will need to get them organized. Keep your photos in one place or if you have ideas of which paper and/or embellishments you will use for a layout, put them together in a bag. You may want to invest in a divided paper storage product or perhaps a portable hanging file folder system. Organize your embellishments however you choose (by color, theme or manufacturer). Whatever system works for you so you can find the items you are looking for.

4. Packing: Now the fun part! It is always interesting to how much stuff you can fit into that tote of your! I would suggest a rolling tote….it is easier on the back. Take care when packing your paper that it does not get damaged. It is best to pack paper and album in the same compartment. If you are bringing ink pads, pack them in an outside pocket or put them in a plastic bag or other container just incase a cover comes off. You may want to invest in a smaller table sized caddy that can hold your scissors, adhesives and other items that you will constantly use.

The day of the crop, make sure you have directions and leave in plenty of time. After you check-in, either select a seat or find your assigned seat, unpack and start to crop. You will find that you get more work done when you have all your scrapbooking items organized!