The Mighty Squirm: News and Events

I'm a guest blogger at nohoartsdistrict.com!

2011-12-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

To read my blog "Steampunk Technical Institute: Professors Wanted," visit http://www.nohoartsdistrict.com/index.php/kenzies-art-blog/item/890-steampunk-technical-institute-professors-wanted. It's an honor for me to be a guest blogger for "Kenzie's Art" (hosted by Cella Gallery co-director Kenzie Alexander) on the NoHo Arts District Web site!

Shark and Diver

2011-12-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

This new shirt, which actually features a prehistoric shark known as a megalodon, is doing REALLY well! It partners well with our Hungry T-Rex shirt, so that might be one reason for its success. Maybe the imaginary dangers of prehistoric creatures to humans will become a theme that we build on...

Bats Day Holiday Black Market Was a Blast, In Spite of the Rain!

2011-11-10T15:51:00.001-08:00

It rained most of the day on Nov. 6...but rain apparently doesn't stop the die-hards of darkness from emerging from their lairs to see the handmade work of superb artists and craftspeople! Thus, Bats Day Holiday Black Market had some substantial traffic from feet in black granny boots. We had great conversations with hatmakers, corset builders, sellers of antique steampunk accessories, fellow artists, and fellow designers of creepy T-shirts. There was a bar on the premises too, so we took turns manning our booth AND shopping with cosmos in hand. (A bar is always a great tool for increasing sales! I don't regret any of the purchases I made, but I certainly was not watching my budget as closely as I do when I haven't had a cocktail or two.)
Here's a picture of our booth provided by Krisztianna, a wonderful artist with her own Web site and blog. I bought a gorgeous print of her work at DeviantArt yesterday. Visit her at krisztianna.com. Not only is the art on the site a pleasure to look at, but she also sets an example for all of us artists who should be more devoted to good blog writing and photography. On Sunday we also had very nice conversations with Eric Pigors, the creator of Toxic Toons. We've been fans of his for a long time, and it was great to meet him in person! His online store is at toxictoons.com. Talking with Juan of MTNT Mutante Leathers was also great. He sells his darkly intricate leather cuffs and jewelry at Fairfax and Melrose every Sunday (booth #122). Visit him on Facebook at facebook.com/JCmtntmutante.
Other awesome people/companies we met at Bats Day that everyone should check out:
enchanteddreamwear.com
killhouettes.com
kreepsville666.com
foulbitten.com
anatomology.com
monsterbuckles.com
pillboxdesigns.com
daisyviktoria.com
fliptribaldesigns.com
miyudecay.etsy.com
We're also planning to visit Bar Sinister this Saturday night! They're at barsinister.net. Hope we see some of our Bats Day fellows there!
And, of course, visit the Bats Day official site at batsday.com.
Sorry these URL links don't work! I tried to create links in Blogger, but they wouldn't appear in the post...gotta find out why...

New T-shirt design, coming out in November...

2011-10-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

This glows in the dark! It will be available for women and men the first week of November--just in time for the Bats Day Holiday Market in Anaheim Nov. 6!

15% Discount: Get a Jump on Halloween!

2011-10-03T16:01:00.000-07:00

Use the code HALLOWEENJUMP2011 during checkout at this Web store or our Etsy store (www.themightysquirm.etsy.com) and get 15% off your entire purchase! Happy Halloween!

Upcoming Gallery Show: "Grimm Tales"

2011-09-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

For "Grimm Tales," a group show at Cella Gallery on Oct 8, I'm designing and painting a book cover for the story "The Bremen Town Musicians." For the back cover, I'm painting Bach as a donkey, Vivaldi as a cat, Mozart as a dog, and Beethoven as a rooster. It's working out beautifully; people who are familiar with the paintings of the composers on which I'm basing my own should be able to see how these composers really do resemble the animals! What fun this project is! Please come see it on Oct. 8 when it's done! Visit http://www.cellagallery.com for more info.

I take back what I said about SEO!

2011-08-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

The SEO edits I made might actually be working. It seems that even more people are finding me and placing orders. But I still love the idea of people doing a search for "romance" and finding my hearse shirt, Skel-Belle, shirt, or Grim Reaper Kiss of Death shirt! Watch, now: for once I'm going to remember to "label" this blog post to increase the possibility that people will find it and read it. (And I'm going to include the word "romance.")

The Urn Widow

2011-08-17T22:17:00.001-07:00

I just finished her yesterday. (I'm working on a series of widows from the past.) I absolutely LOVE the way she turned out. We see her looking at her husband's urn, which she holds in her hands, and wonder what she's thinking...is she sad...or not?
You can click on the image to make it larger. The original drawing will be shown at the Cannibal Flower 11th Anniversary Show, http://www.cannibalflower.com. (For some reason I can't make the link to their Web site work on my blog; I'll try to fix it after I've recharged my laptop battery.) I haven't decided whether the image is going to be on a T-shirt or not.

I feel like an SEO whore...

2011-08-17T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I've updated the titles and labels in my Etsy store, for the sake of Search Engine Optimization. Instead of "Shirts for Men," the label now says "Gothic Dark Shirts for Men," because "Gothic" and "Dark" are two words that are more specific and more likely to show up in a search engine. Instead of "The Mighty Squirm by TheMightySquirm on Etsy," my Etsy store title in a search engine now reads "Gothic Dark Halloween TShirts and Art by TheMightySquirm on Etsy." Personally, I love our slogan "T-Shirts and Art with Romance and a Slight Chill," because it's an elegant phrase that says just what I want it to. But, since people can't search for it, it's not SEOptimal. I have to say what people can easily find, so that I can climb ahead of other people to the top of the search list. And when I climb over someone else, they get stepped on by me. The author Tom Hodgkinson once made the observation that when we earn a dollar, we don't simply earn it; we actually subtract from someone else's income and add to ours. No wonder I dislike marketing so much.
Maybe for me the best way to market is to SAY my OWN phrasing again and again, rather than second-guess what someone else is searching for. Then, maybe someday, people WILL start searching for "T-Shirts and Art with Romance and a Slight Chill." Or maybe eventually my skeleton characters will turn up in a search for "romance." Wouldn't that be wonderful!

The Martyrdom of Going Organic

2011-05-16T08:49:00.001-07:00

A few years ago, going organic seemed like the responsible thing to do. And we're committed to it. In fact, when we first made the decision to do it, we were committed almost to the point of not printing our shirts on attractive garments. Let me tell you what the search for the right organic shirts has been like.
Our first organic find was the one that many, many T-shirt designers use: the American Apparel "Sustainable Edition." No dyes, reasonable price. We discovered two negatives: 1) the market is so glutted with American Apparel that many stores won't carry your shirts if they know you print on that brand, and 2) the sexually explicit behavior of AA's owner in his own workplace makes us feel uneasy about buying from him. Here are two positives: 1) AA is "vertically integrated," which basically means very little work has to be outsourced and less money has to be spent on importing and transportation, allowing more money to stay within the company and workers to get much better wages; and 2) if you print kids' designs, AA is a really great source of organic shirts for kids ages 6-12 that actually fit well (although they run a tad small, so we buy a size up and put in our own size label). Bella and Alternative Apparel have good organic toddler shirts, and Econscious now has a line of bigger kids' shirts that fit pretty well. SOS from Texas also has great kids' shirts, but they shrink a lot when they are dyed, and a few have undyeable thread. But AA is the only place where you can buy kids' tees from toddler size on up to size 12 in one place. Most of the kids' T-shirt companies we've met use AA, remove the label, and relabel with their own so that no one knows the shirts are AA. And, frankly, I wish buyers for kids' stores would stop worrying about this so much. My experience from selling direct online, on my own site and on sites like Etsy, is that customers care a lot about the quality of a kids' shirt and the design on it, and hardly at all about the blank tees all coming from the same source. (After all, don't most kids' tees have the same cut anyway?)
Our next find, which we really thought would set us up forever with adults' organic tees, was Alternative Apparel. Their ladies' organic scoop neck was both soft and beautiful and came in great colors. The men's we liked equally well. But then Alternative did two really painful things to little tee designers like me: they raised their prices, AND started sewing their tags ON the inside collar instead of UNDER it, preventing us from cutting it out and printing or sewing our own in its place. We like the shirts so much that we still print on them; since we mostly sell direct and don't have to have flashy, perfect branding, we decided to keep in the Alternative label and just print our own inside the shirt, underneath theirs. None of our customers has said anything about it.
Next, we came up with a T-Rex design that wrapped around the side of a big kids' shirt. Thus began our quest for an organic shirt with no side seams. After lots and lots of Web searches and phone calls, we found Anvil youth organic tees. Imagine our excitement! We ordered some up and couldn't wait to try them out. Then we discovered that their Youth XS, which is supposed to fit a 2-4 (according to them), actually fits more like a 6. And their Youth M fits a tall woman easily. What the heck! We printed on them anyway and sold them for bigger kids. Then we had to search for a shirt for sizes 2-4 with no side seams. Nonexistent. We ended up redesigning the "toddler T-Rex" to fit entirely on the shirt front--which might have been a blessing in disguise, because many people have asked us to print the REDESIGN larger. Who knew...
We've done hours and hours of homework on the organic tee, and I can't tell you how many organic shirts out there have dowdy cuts and surfaces that are rough on the skin. Still others have little lotus flowers printed on them instead of just being blank, or tags sewn on the OUTSIDE of the shirt that can't be removed without leaving an ugly fringe...although now, I must say, because of Alternative Apparel, we're starting to embrace the concept of the "double label." After all, why shouldn't the buyer know that one company cut and sewed their shirt and another printed a cool original design on it?
Kids' stores bemoan the lack of variety in kids' tees, but we bemoan the lack of variety among women's organic blank shirt cuts. We'd like to take this opportunity to BEG women's organic shirt makers to look more closely at the fashionable shirts women are wearing, or to work with a designer who designs for beauty rather than for soccer games and yard work. Would it be so awful to design a blank organic tee with a slight drape to the neck front? Or a feminine puffy short sleeve? Or a subtle bell sleeve, like C & C California does? I'd be in heaven! And I can tell you, from what I've seen on Etsy, that other shirt decorators would want them too.
If you still don't think the word "martyrdom" applies, here's where it really comes in for us: WE'RE AMONG VERY FEW SHIRT DESIGNERS WHO ARE DOING THIS. It kills us that nearly everyone else is printing on whatever conventional-cotton or blend tee they want, and having a much easier time getting the pretty cuts and the variety. In fact, we feel that with some new ideas we're coming up with, the success is dependent on the right shirt cut, so we might have no choice but to sell some nonorganic options. Sorry. It's beyond our control. We believe in organics, but, to quote one of our screen printers, we don't feel we deserve to have to "police ourselves out of business."

Bats Day 2011 in Anaheim was tremendous!

2011-05-09T21:14:00.000-07:00

We had a VERY successful and fun weekend at Bats Day in the Fun Park, an annual event that takes place about a mile outside of Disneyland and is attended by lovers of the dark subculture (including goth, industrial, and steampunk). Although there were plenty of people walking around with sallow makeup and dusty black Victorian attire, there was nothing grim or depressing about the atmosphere or the people. Everyone was friendly and seemed very glad to be there.
The event was well organized and well attended; by 6 pm (an hour after Disneyland Park closed), there was hardly room to move around or air to breathe. Shoppers had the wares of over 50 vendors to choose from. The sellers offered goth and steampunk clothing, elegant antique-style jewelry, hats made with delicate little rodent skulls, colorful ribbon falls for Lolita hair, and many other fantastic wares, including our high-end tees with original "death art" designs. In the evening, the "Swinging Wake," named after the ghost-filled ballroom that's part of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion ride, had a great DJ and a dance floor with lots of hoop skirts and coattails enthusiastically swirling.
Even though I was recovering from a nasty cold, I was happy to endure my residual headache and shout myself hoarse over the crowd while talking to our gracious customers (part of my reason for shouting was not being able to hear with my fluid-filled right ear). I was even glad to survive sweating through my own heavy Victorian ballgown while taking down our booth at 10 pm. (I wanted to go to the Wake right after, so I changed into my costume before the Black Market wrapped up; that was a mistake, I guess). Hooray for Bats Day!

We've been cited at FinchFound.com!

2011-04-27T19:46:00.000-07:00

FinchFound.com is a great blog by two moms, Charlotte and Ella, who comb the Internet and find items to recommend. In their words: "To sum it up, we appreciate beautiful, handcrafted, modern items for our family and we wouldn’t kick sustainable or natural materials out of bed. For the most part we pass on the traditional plastic toys from big box stores...and scoop up unique, high quality, long lasting beautiful items."
When someone wrote to them looking for a cool toddler shirt under $20, FinchFound found our Organic Toddler T-Rex. Check out www.finchfound.com and scroll down to the April 25 entry, "Boys' T-Shirts/You Asked, Finch Found It!" We're honored to be mentioned by these conscientious moms!

Celebrate Odd Etsy has cited us in their blog!

2011-01-11T18:29:00.000-08:00

We're thrilled to be featured on Celebrate Odd Etsy (www.celebrateoddetsy.blogspot.com), a blog that honors the weirder wares available at the popular etsy.com marketplace. Weird is wonderful! To find some of the most original Etsy items before other buyers do, you can't do better than to visit this blog!

We're in a blog at WhatTheCraft.com!

2010-10-01T13:25:00.001-07:00

WhatTheCraft.com has posted a blog called "Halloween Handmade Showcase: Danse Macabre," and we are proud that our Men's Bat Skeleton Shirt has been cited in it. The blog contains a number of delightfully different Halloween items, including an incredible skull dress made by the blogger, Alexis, whose store is called SmarmyClothes. You can find her arresting wares at http://smarmyclothes.com.

Organic Bats and Haunted House Shirts Are Here!

2010-09-20T10:45:00.000-07:00

Our organic bats and haunted house shirts glow in the dark. Perfect for Halloween clubbing and parties! They're now available for men and women--please visit our "Shop" section. A kids' version will be coming with a week.

Just Joined the Illustrator's Guild on LinkedIn!

2010-09-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to say that the Illustrator's Guild, a group of professional illustrators on LinkedIn, has accepted me (as TheMightySquirm.com) into their group. I'm looking forward to meeting other artists and exchanging feedback! --Thea

Noah Hardgrave and "Transitional Cotton"

2010-08-17T22:24:00.000-07:00

Just recently I heard that Noah Hardgrave at Screen Gems Silkscreening Co. (Los Alamitos, CA) had passed away. He supervised the printing of two of our favorite shirts: our dragon and burning castle, and our toddler knight in armor. The packing slips from Screen Gems that accompanied our shirts read, "Thank You for Buying Organic" (referring to the blank shirts we selected). Once I had a conversation with Noah about organic shirts and how frustrating is was that the selection of them is still so limited.

He introduced me to an idea I was unfamiliar with: transitional cotton. I'm going to paraphrase, in my uneducated way, what he explained: A farm that grows organic cotton can't sell its product as "organic" until the fields have had three years to allow chemicals from conventional farming to work their way out of the soil. Cotton grown in those fields during the three years is called "transitional cotton."

Since farmers are uncertain about the marketability of transitional cotton, it's a big financial risk for them to go organic, because for three years they will have to grow cotton they aren't sure they can sell. Noah Hardgrave said that if shirt makers bought transitional cotton to help farms go organic, more farms might make the change.

So The Mighty Squirm would like to say that if any shirt makers decide to support transitional cotton by buying it and marketing "transitional cotton shirts," we sure would be interested in printing on them! Going transitional is going green! In fact, even though we're using more organic blank tees, we sometimes feel uneasy about it, because to get organic cotton many shirt makers have to go pretty far outside the U.S. to get it, and this doesn't do the U.S. economy much good. If we all used more transitional cotton, we could all use "Made in the USA" labels in our shirts a lot more often.

Well, that's how we at The Mighty Squirm feel. And we also keenly feel the loss of Noah Hardgrave, an excellent screen printer who strongly advocated environmentally conscious apparel manufacturing.

Organic Bats and Haunted House Shirt Coming Next Week

2010-08-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

Our "Bats and Haunted House" design, originally for kids, has been reprinted for adults on organic cotton shirts. Well before Halloween! And the bones and all the white areas of the design glow in the dark too...look for it early next week!

We truly think it might be the best Halloween shirt design out there. We might make a print on paper from it too. And we'll reprint it on an organic kids' shirt if we can find the right shirt lickety-split...there isn't much time left...keep your fingers crossed for us!

GraveDiggersLocal.com will feature us tomorrow, August 10th!

2010-08-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

We couldn't be happier that Grave Digger's Local 16 has chosen to showcase The Mighty Squirm's Etsy shop in their weekly feature "Tuesday uEtsy." Their site, GraveDiggersLocal.com, spreads the word about many artisans who specialize in wonderful dark merchandise. We've discovered some new favorites of our own on the site! The Grave Diggers' "union representatives" also post highly engaging commentaries about art, music, books, and film, mind-bending horror stories from history (check out the posts "Defrosting the Minnesota Iceman" and "The Bandit That Wouldn't Give Up"--wow!), and much more. If you're a connoisseur of dark culture, you won't be disappointed--these writers have probably found something interesting that you haven't yet!

Our Etsy shop can be found at http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheMightySquirm. It's worth multiple visits to Etsy not just for us, but for so many other original crafters. Some of our favorite brother and sister shops are listed on our Etsy home page.

Jackapotamus is selling a design SO MUCH like ours!

2010-08-07T14:35:00.001-07:00

Jackapotamus, a store in Santa Monica, is selling a kids' shirt with a T-Rex skeleton that wraps around the side. It's a little different from ours, but the idea is so very similar. I saw it on a toddler in Santa Monica today and promptly told his mom the following story:

I met Cassandra, the owner of Jackapotamus, some time ago. We discussed my possibly selling shirts in her co-op store on Main Street. Two months later, she told me I could sell shirts in her store, but not the dinosaur skeletons because she was going to make her own. And now I've seen the T-Rex shirt. I can't prove there's a connection, but gosh...

What also looks suspicious to me is that the shirt doesn't appear in her online stores. It's harder for me to spot if I can't find it on the Internet, right?

My designs are all original, hand drawn by me (not traced from another picture reference), and I'm mighty proud of that. So, to get your hands on the ORIGINAL T-Rex wraparound design, visit themightysquirm.com! --Thea

The Mighty Squirm's Return to Unique LA

2009-12-10T14:13:00.000-08:00

We had an amazing time at Unique LA on Dec. 5 and 6. At the show we introduced several new T-shirt designs and a new letterpress print as well. Sales were excellent (even better than last year) and we met lots of very nice and talented fellow vendors who created apparel, jewelry, art, and all kinds of incredible gifts. Thanks to all our friends who made it to the show!

Our Skel-Belle Shirt Is Featured in Creepy Queen Magazine!

2009-06-26T23:49:00.000-07:00

Creepy Queen Magazine (creepyqueen.webs.com) is now featuring our Skel Belle shirt! (See creepyqueen.webs.com/apps/blog/ and the article "Treacherous Tees.") Creepy Queen is a fantastic online magazine and blog that calls much-needed attention to the indy arts. We feel very lucky to be there. Hope you will check it out!

The BEST kids' T-Rex shirt in the WORLD!!

2009-06-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

No kidding...this new shirt of ours has a HUGE T-REX on it that GLOWS IN THE DARK, and it's ORGANIC COTTON! C'mon, admit it...it's not possible to do better than that for a kid!

The shirt isn't on our Web site yet, but you can order it on Etsy.com starting Wednesday, June 17. There are three sizes: XS (6-8), S (8-10), and M (10-12). Go to our online Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5881427

Event: June 13

2009-05-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

See work by Mighty Squirm artist Thea Mohr Saks at Cella Gallery's upcoming show June 13. Mighty Squirm T-shirts and prints are also available here!