CARD SHACK

I entered the graphics art field after I found out that the one year of college I suffered through wasn't for me. My first job was at a parade float company in my hometown of Brazil, Indiana...yes, that's right...Brazil. I learned how to build floats, among other things, and had my first lessons in silk screening. It was "rock and a stick" silk screening in those days....no computers, no automated machinery.....everything was done by hand. We had no photographic equipment, so I hand-cut the stencils, adhered them into the silk, and did the runs myself, with the aid of a helper....each one of us on our respective sides of the squeegee. Mostly, we printed banners for centennials, so we had to use a very thick textile ink that wouldn't soak into the material, and took a long time to dry. If we were lucky enough to have a third person, that person would hang the banners we just printed on a round pole that were then stuck in a series of holes that were drilled in a two-by-four that was nailed to the wall. If a third person wasn't available, one of us would have to hang the banners. Ahhh....those were the days..... I moved to Chicago after I had worked for the float company for five years, and found a job at a company that silk screened display backgrounds and embellishments for department store window displays. Again, everything was printed by hand. I was the one and only stencil cutter and cut 4' by 8' stencils that sometimes took several days to finish. A new innovation came into being when transparent inks were introduced. We could print one color over another color and make a third color. We could eliminate several runs and come out with several more colors. This was a very cool thing, although it was very confusing for the stencil cutter....me. We had a lot of very impressive accounts at this company....Nieman Marcus, Macy's, and Marshall Field's, to name a few. It was thrilling to see the work I had participated in being displayed in the windows of these stores