Hallelujah The Hills Fabric Patches

If you've ever touched edges with alternative culture/punk music, you've probably seen someone sporting a denim or leather jacket covered in pins and patches. Long story short, that's the idea here. Boston favorites Hallelujah the Hills recorded their latest LP at 1809 Studios in Macedon, NY in November of 2015, and I played the role of assistant engineer for the five days & nights that they lived in the studio and recorded. As a parting gift, I made an initial run of 8 patches for them. Five for the band, one for the author of their forthcoming biography, one for the producer & owner of 1809 Studios, and one for myself. These process shots were taken in my little kitchen, shortly after the band ordered 50 more patches to sell at shows and give away. I carved their often-used abbreviation "HTH" into a linoleum block, and used that same block for every impression, following a partially-improvised workflow. I learned even more about relief printing by doing it at home. This band is great, and you can learn more at http://www.hallelujahthehills.com.

My workstation, immediately to the left of my microwave, featuring my Descendents mug & necessary black coffee. Block un-inked, aluminum foil secured to the counter. Ready to roll.
The four square yards of fabric I (over) purchased had lots of wrinkles in it. An easy fix.
We eat here! I covered up the table with newspaper (left), then secured the large piece of fabric to the table with tape (right).
NOTE: I learned a little something about how uneven surfaces affect ink coverage because of the small pieces of tape; more on that later. 
Fully inked block, ready to print (left), ink & roller (center), "ink" knife (right).
NOTE: Almost out of coffee.
The first impression of this run. I'll admit that I was nervous.
NOTE: Shoutout to Burger Records in Fullerton, CA.
A close-up shot of the first impression. I love the rippling in the ink, and the thick coverage. It gives each impression character, and achieves a wonderful DIY-yet-high-quality aesthetic that so many young jacket-wearers desire.
The first four impressions. Notice that the tape is clearly visible underneath the printing surface.
*SOME TIME LATER* We have the first full run of uncut patches! Victory, pictured right.
A full table's worth of printed material, a.k.a, a beautiful sight.
A semi-wide detail shot. At press time, this picture is my desktop background.
You can really see the tape impressions in this picture.
Next came cutting the patches and sorting out the duds. Although I enjoyed the quirks of the tape markings, I had to sort them out of the pile. As any good printer might do, I did an over-run of 20 to ensure 50 high-quality impressions. I felt this was necessary considering the imperfections in my workspace.
The best fifty patches, all ready to be shipped to Boston. This was one of my favorite projects to work on. Thanks for looking!
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