It’s been an intense few weeks. Bo and I have been emailing back-and-forth many times a day as I finesse the design according to his needs. But now, all is ready. Last night Last week I cutover the new site and replaced the old one.
Ladies and gentlemen: I present Eat More Kale, Vermont’s One-At-A-Time Hand-Printed T-Shirts.
All around Vermont, where I live, you see cars and trucks with these bright green round bumper stickers proclaiming EAT MORE KALE. The meme has spread to greater New England, the Pacific Nortthwest, and other places. It says a lot, but it doesn’t say it in a way that’s divisive or negative. It is hopeful and positive. Kale is good for you. It tastes good. It’s often grown organically (indeed, it’s so hardy there’s really no need for chemicals). A good frost actually makes it taste sweeter. And, you should eat more of it. With garlic, potatoes, and linguicia sausage in a soup is one of my favorites.
Bo carved the Eat More Kale design into an acetate stencil in about 20 minutes and hand-screened a shirt, but he can tell the story better than I can:
EAT MORE KALE is my most popular and best selling design. People always ask me “what do you mean?” and “did you think of that?” First, I must give credit where credit is due. I did not think of the phrase. A couple of friends of mine, Paul B. and Kate C., suggested the phrase and “special ordered” two shirts for themselves. I must admit, I gave the design very little thought. I drew the letters and cut the stencil in less than 20 minutes. I printed their shirts and delivered them at the next farmer’s market.
I thought that was the end of the story. I was very mistaken. Folks from the farmer’s market began to request their own “EAT MORE KALE” shirts. With Paul and Kate’s blessing I began printing what was soon to be my best-selling design. As for “what does it mean?” It means something different to so many people. Some take it literally, others see it as social commentary. It reminds me to think of what I eat. It makes me think of good food grown in a sustainable manner by local farmers.
This design makes people smile, think, tell stories, and ask questions. What more could I ask for? I’m so pleased to be part of something so positive. EAT MORE KALE, it’s more than a stenciled design, it’s a movement!
But that’s not the half of it. He has these other great designs, two, like one with two ravens facing each other, and another with a native bear that’s actually reverse silk-screened. Instead of using the original stencil, he places the cutout from the stencil onto the screen, then screens the ink around it. The edges of the ink have a brushed on look to them. It’s really awesome.
Every single one of his designs is hand-made, each stencil is hand-cut, and the shirts are printed one-at-a-time in his little studio in Montpelier, Vermont. The shirts themselves are dyed these amazing colors. They come from a Vermont company that uses an ecologically efficient process that reuses waste water to dye the shirts.
Each design has a little story behind its creation, which you can read about. Each design comes in some great shirt styles, like baseball jerseys, ringers, ladies, and kids.
There’s really just nothing else out there like these hand-printed shirts. After Hurricane Katrina, the bright, simple, positive feeling of these shirts is its own form of relief. Buy one for yourself and several more for your family and friends.
Eat More Kale is a WordPress site and uses PayPal to handle payment processing. I created all the graphics and the theme. Bo wrote nearly all the content, and of course, there is a blog. Both of us put a lot of work into this blog-centric ecommerce site. I think it shows a little where blogging can take us.
