DECEMBER 2020 SALE INFO: SOCKS, SHOES, POSTERS, CHARITY AUCTION

Greetings! thanks for taking the time to read up on our current sale. let me give you all the info i can currently think of.

25% of the proceeds from today's sale will be donated to two non-profits, as well as 100% of our ebay auctions. Our two non-profits are DCYF and Open House Ministries. A little about them - Sarah and I have been foster parents for...five years? And we asked our local state foster agency what they needed this holiday season. Current needs include - Giftcards for kids and a tree for the agency lobby, since there will be children spending this Christmas season at the foster office, and they don't have decorations. SO, we're committed to providing that tree, providing decorations and giftcards, and doing our part to spread a little holiday cheer. Our other non-profit is Open House Ministries.  This is an agency we've supported as a family for many years, they do a wonderful job of helping people get into homes, get childcare, education and jobs.

So, two worthy causes, my goal is to raise $10,000, who knows if we can do it but regardless, every little bit helps.

NOW, onto the infomercial portion of this blog.

- SHOES: I'm a big slip on shoes guy, I've worn vans for 20 years+. For awhile they offered custom graphics printed on their shoes, which was awesome, but then they stopped offering it in my size. Because i'm a petty person, I decided to go around them and get my own shoes made. I had a few companies create prototypes and I have to say, the one that we settled on it pretty legit. I'm still tweaking the designs a bit just to make sure they print as nicely as possible, but hopefully those that order will be stoked.

- SOCKS: can't have shoes without socks am i right? that's like peanut butter without jelly. i wanted to make something pretty fun and colorful, and hopefully i haven't completely failed. building upon my BERSERK MERK™ universe (i've already sold the movie rights), these socks are sure to be a conversation starter...at least between you and i. The quality seems legit, no complaints yet. What you see in the graphics isn't 100% what the final version will look like, the graphic does get kinda pixely or digital looking when they sew it, but it is definitely sewn, not printed. so that's cool.

-  Artprints / Lunar Calendars / Laser wood cuts / stickers: the rest of this stuff is pretty familiar to the tstout collector base (both of you). Its just some stuff i thought would be fun. These are currently printing, so nothing will ship in time for christmas, alas, but soon. I'll do up some christmas certificates for people to print out ('I bought you a pair of shoes!') that type of thing. If people are interested in that sorta stuff.

REGARDLESS, thanks for looking, thanks for reading. like the airplane pilots say, we know you have a lot of choices out there and we appreciate you choosing us.

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FAQ

Q: So if i win this auction, I can write that off as a charity donation?
A: alas, no. no. no. TSTOUT INC is the one donating the funds, you're just buying goods. the money still goes to charity but its from us.

Q: How do these shoes fit?
A: Nicely. to me. but if you've never worn vans in your life, I don't know your sizing. I wear a size 13 vans, and shoes in general, and size 13 fits me fine.

Q: How do the socks fit?
A: Again, pretty nice. they're not super thick, like dress socks. no complaints.

Q: Why is the woodcut so expensive???
A: because its kinda a bit of work. Its not just 'put slab of wood into machine, press 'LASER'. i have to trim the wood, fasten it all together, sand it down, paint it, then etch it and make it suitable for hanging. exactly like these bad boys, for those that remember. they're definitely more 'artsy' than like, a paper poster. I enjoy making them for sure, but they're not turnkey. NOT YET. i'll teach my kids to make them and we'll have a regular sweatshop going on.

☢️ radiation burns - an introductory guide

greetings fellow quarantiners, thanks for taking a moment to get the latest update from the tstout dot crom. i've had a few queries about these cutouts i did recently so i figured i should post a note just to catch everyone up.

last sale i sold these for a dollar, the caveat being you couldn't buy anything else. i wanted to do something that everyone could participate in, i know a lot of us can't buy tons of extra stuff at the moment due to stuff going on in the world etc, so this was just a fun thing to throw out, an experiment on my part.

cut to: a lot of people buying these. put the pressure on me to make something worth having. more than a sticker. less than a personalized birthday cake. i decided upon paper cut outs, haircuts for paper, basically. started making some. not completely sickened with disgust. made a few more. ergo, Haircuts for Paper was born. wait, i mean Radiation Burns™ was born. or maybe Kolcuts™. like, kolfacekilla + cut paper? no? Skidmarks™? we'll get there.

how are they made. well...some are cut out of older scratch and dented prints. cut, then spray painted black, then mailed off. i noticed the black paint was rubbing a bit in the post, so i started using fixer on later versions. helps a bit. then realized i could order black paper from french paper co, no spray painting required. loses a bit but gains something else. win / win. or triage as they say in the medical field. its been a learning experience.

in the beginning, we (the royal we) started small. first one down. then moved to existing art. then some of this. little of that. a few hmmms...and thus a pattern was born. i gotta say, its not 100% easy, i'd say each of these venture more into the 'hand crafted' territory versus the mass produced vibe that i try to go for. i'm trying to steer away from too much of the craft feeling, stay in my lane. who knows, time will tell. i could be doing personalized wedding napkins next.

shipping. these shipped for 50 cents. our shipping program sends out automatic emails with the illusion of a tracking number, but alas, for 50 cents, you get no tracking, its a gibberish number. so that was a learning experience.

overall quality. time will tell. i believe they are pretty sturdy. tore this defective one in half and it was like tearing a poster. it can be done, but not like spiderweb fragile. the bigger issue can be bending, small pieces getting bent.

thanks to all that suggested ideas on tstout.com, i appreciate your helpfulness. i don't expect to invest in this new style heavily, its more of a side thing, screenprinted prints are my day job. so, if you hate them, close your eyes and they'll be gone.

anywho, that's the update. hope everyone has ok seats for the apocalypse. for more info, watch tstout.com and that's it.

february2020: break it down

well we'll see if this works, been awhile since i've dusted off the ol blogger.

just wanted to update with the thoughts behind the last sale, thought it went well from my perspective. obviously shipped later than i would like, but holiday sales will do that.

other than that, some questions people had.
Q: talk about the 24x36 print included with calendars.
A: just something done for funzies, wanted to work with premier press in portland oregon, wanted to check out what their quality looked like. i got the verbiage from them regarding the 'offset litho press w/ spot pantones.' its not just press a button and a print comes out, it was a very intricate process that i enjoyed being a part of.

Q: why was it folded?
A: because i actually collect movie posters from days passed, olden times, and most of those are on thinner paper and folded up. i enjoy the look, adds a mystique to it. i know some people might consider it 'damaged', but to me it gives it a lived in appearance. its one of those things that 'if i fold a poster i designed, its ok, but if someone else folds a poster i designed, its bad.' weird huh?

Q: my extra items were damaged in shipping? can i get a replacement?
A: hopefully everyone knows i replace damaged items that are purchased from me. if its a free extra though, sometimes we don't. if its a stickerpack that is sold 'with two handbills' then both of those handbills are absolutely protected, you bought them from me, you expected them, i will replace damaged prints. but if we throw in a 3rd handbill and only it gets damaged...sometimes we don't replace free stuff you weren't expecting. but we will also always refund orders if you're not happy with them. pack em up, ship em back, we'll refund. stuff you've received within the last month or so, not like years later, then we don't really replace damage. but yeah, we want you to feel good about your business dealings with us.

Q: talk about pros and cons, are they random? why are some harder to find?
A: these are indeed random. we try to put out a good mix so if you bought one pack and your neighbor bought a pack, it won't be the same pack. if you buy two packs, we try to not give you two of the same pack. but ganging these up to print (ganging means putting several small pieces on a larger sheet of paper, like a gang), when they go to be cut, sometimes you can't cut some out without cutting others in half. that happened to three this run. which was dumb on my account, but basically some handbills there are 100% of the run of. and some are 75% of the run. and some are 33% or whatever a third of the run is. just one ended up like that, but my printer had to slice through two to save one. so it just threw off the percentages. and other times, i have enough space to gang up all the handbills 1 time, and then enough space left over to repeat 4 out of the six designs (or whatever). so for every 100 runs of that print, some handbills would then have 100 copies, others would have 200 copies. its confusing, which is why it confuses me and we don't end up with an equal amount of handbills.

Q: why were there so many colorways of the PROS&CONS_WRLD bigger handbills?
A: because i'm a sucker for free printing space. you'll notice that those handbills share the same colors as either the pros and cons or the lunar calendars (well now you'll notice, if you didn't before). and i had extra space so i drew up those three and printed them in the margins. if i had time, i would have drawn up a bunch of others because hey, free printing space. but i only had time to draw those three and i figured hey, lets change the colors up a bit, on this one its a red spinner, on this one its a green. just give people choices. i'm not a fan of a billion different variants of something, so it wasn't me trying to pull a double triple quadruple dip. i just had the space and thought it was fun.

Q: hey did you update your sticker section on your website, tstout.com?
A: WELL YES I DID. hopefully i caught them all. please let me know. btw, not sure if anyone notices, but the stickers usually have varying degrees of quality...just like life! in a perfect world i would use sticker robot for everything. their quality is superb, they are screenprinted, they stand the test of time. i think. put them on your car bumper or water container and let me know if they fall apart. BUT, they are also the most expensive. hey, you pay for quality. but if all my stickers came from them, that would cost a pretty penny. so i get some of the real bangers printed by them, and then some of the other are printed via a variety of sources, i'm still trying places out. if anyone has a sticker printing place recommendation, let me know. i've used stickerapp, couple other places. all of them should stick to any inside surface (within reason i guess, not like, people's bare skin, or pets).

but yeah, my goal is always the perfect sticker that lasts forever and is good quality. i can tell you, from this last batch, these are all sticker robot.

just so you can get a feel for which ones might last the longest. but hey, some of the other ones have lasted long for me as well, so i dunno, its a bit of a roll of the dice. i want to sell quality stickers, but its a balance between quality and charging 30$ per sticker pack, ha.

Q: well shoot, i think you answered all of my questions!
A: well good. i am glad. if you have more, email away.