Jake Weidmann is a master in calligraphy and pen and ink, combining a classical-yet-modern look to his work. Translating his work to printed garments was a complicated, yet worthwhile, project. (All images courtesy the author)

Being in the specialty embellishing business, we get to meet some really interesting people. We were lucky enough to run across a specialty artist this last summer when he and his business partners from In Plain Sight sat down with us to discuss some projects they wanted to translate into wearable art. Jake Weidmann is a fairly young and recent graduate whose life’s pleasure is to create art. Among other mediums, Weidmann is a master in calligraphy and pen and ink, combining a classical-yet-modern look to his work. As a master pen man, he is one of few in his trade who actually makes his own pens. 

 

Calligraphy comes from Greek origins and is a visual art often called the art of fancy lettering. The combination of classic and modern calligraphy ranges from abstract expression to contemporary visual wonders. During our meeting over a couple of Diet Cokes on the deck, we were able to take a look at some of Weidmann’s work and review his portfolio. The In Plain Sight group tried before to translate this original art onto garments with little success. This translation would take a bit more than the ordinary methods, but we love to take on the unusual… it’s what we do.

 

Recreating a masterpiece

For the first project, as a group, we initially decided to choose a mirrored version of two “sea horses.” Because these were original penned pieces of artwork, we would need a high-resolution scan. The art was larger than our in-house scanners, so we would reach out to our friends at a service bureau for an oversize flatbed scan at 200 dpi (dots per inch). Once we had our Photoshop document we opened it in Illustrator to work our magic.

 

Because the image and document were so huge, we struggled with an all-over trace. We had to drag one piece at a time onto our desktop, where we saved and imported into Illustrator to begin our work. We selected a box around the image area to be traced and resized it down a bit. Then, we went to the live trace button and played around with different settings (with the preview checked) under tracing options until we came to a suitable trace. We had to adjust nearly everything to get a good trace—the art was very complicated and required some finesse to get it right. Threshold, blur, path fitting, minimum area and corner angle all needed some work. 

 

We hit the expand button and ungrouped each of the parts of the image, which would allow us to select and remove the undesirable areas to dial in the contrast and hard lines we were shooting for. We then reconstructed the individual parts back together again to create one image. 

 

The distressed pattern of the gold outline made the application really look like a gold leaf application.

The background areas didn’t trace very well, so we would need to rebuild it. After selecting the entire image, and creating and locking a new layer, we changed our opacity to about 50 percent—all to ensure nothing accidently moves. With the fill color set to “none” and the stroke color to “black,” we selected our pen tool from the tool box. We selected multiple anchor points for each line. 

While holding down the mouse, we use the bezier handles and shape the lines to follow the natural curves of the shapes on the original image. We were ready to output our black and navy plates. 

 

We added two outlines, each several points wide, and sandwiched a distressed filter between them to add a gold foil trim on the outside of the two sea horses. We made our image size fit edge to edge on our standard platens, really giving it a larger-than-life feel at 16" X 22".

 

Screen matters

We decided on water-based black and navy inks for a super soft hand on white garments. As you may know, foil generally does not stick to water-based ink, so we would also use a foil adhesive for the outline to really add some flashy gold-leaf to the traditional pen-and-ink image. While the color department was mixing the inks, the screen department would prepare the screens. 

 

In order to print a classic vintage soft hand on white garments, our water-based screens would go on 305 tpi, stretched to 30 N/cm perpendicular and parallel on work hardened retensionable frames. The detail of the art and the relatively high mesh combination would require a high-solids water-based product as opposed to a more traditional ink solution. The foil adhesive would be printed on a 156 at the same tension. All stencils would need to be hardened for durability against the water-based inks.  

 

After a quick set up on press using our pre-registration system with just a couple of micro registration moves, we were ready to run. The printed area would feel nearly like the shirt itself, as if it were dyed rather than printed. Eighty durometer squeegees would keep the ink deposits low. The gold foil application would be done post-press using a typical foil transfer application. The distressed pattern of the gold outline made the application really look like a gold leaf application and especially so when done on thermal garments.

 

By the time we were finished with the project we ended up with a classical-yet-modern calligraphy penned product with a bonus gold leaf application. The customer was quite pleased and we continue to develop Weidmann’s designs into wearable art.

 

The original art was scanned on a large flatbed scanner. The art was very complicated and would require some finesse to get it right.

Each of the parts of the image would be ungrouped to allow the author to select and remove undesirable areas to dial in the contrast and hard lines.

The artwork was handled one piece at a time.

The background areas didn’t trace very well and needed to be rebuilt. And, nearly everything had to be adjusted to get a good trace.

The live trace button in Illustrator allowed the author to play around with different settings under tracing options until he came to a suitable trace.

Two outlines, each several points wide, with a distressed filter sandwiched between them, would be used to add a gold foil trim on the outside of the two sea horses.

The individual parts were pieced back together again to create one image.