There’s no way I could ever own a business that involved making personalized T-shirts. The temptation to build an entire wardrobe around my long list of rejected bumper sticker phrases would be too great. Eventually I’d have something like “You think I’m ugly? You should see my girlfriend” stenciled across my back each day of the week. I’d have way too much fun to ever turn a profit.
Thankfully, John Blenis has a little more self control. But not much.
“You can tell I’m a child of the 70s,” he said with a laugh, pointing to a rack of retro shirts he clearly designed for the few left who still admit to enjoying records and a good game of Frisbee.
Blenis owns and operates Fine Line Graphics, a custom clothing print and design shop on 14 Prentice St. in Norwich. A graphic designer by trade, he started printing T-shirts and clothing from his home about six years ago after working in the early 1990s with the late Kevin Hopson, a Norwich resident who did it as a hobby.
“I just became fascinated with it,” said Blenis, who spent 20 years in the private and public sector as a graphic artist. “Eventually I got tired of sitting at a desk all day doing computer graphics.”
Now Blenis rotates full-time between a computer and his eight-station shirt press, where he and his press operator Bob Wolf can crank out several hundred shirts a day. They also do sweatshirts, sweat pants, jackets, bags and umbrellas. Signs and banners aren’t out of the question, either.
“Every day is a little bit different. That’s what’s great about this work. We always have customers bringing in new challenges,” said Blenis, who moved Fine Line to Prentice Street about a year ago. “It’s fun to see the finished product of a nice design.”
Most times customers bring in their own drawings and concepts, Blenis said. But in some cases, he or Wolf, who is an accomplished artist in his own right, will develop original designs for people or, in some cases, ones they can market themselves.
“We can do most any design work people might need,” said Fine Line’s founder.
Once they get a design, using either computer software or actual handmade templates, Blenis creates vinyl or ink screen stencils.
What’s the difference?
Vinyl is used for shirts that require lettering, like the name on the back of jersey, or an order that requires a digital picture or logo be placed on a shirt. A printer shoots out the vinyl-based letters or design, which then get ironed onto a shirt by a 300-degree heated press that looks like a big quesadilla maker.
Ink screen stencils, on the other hand, are better for mass producing a large order of shirts with one, two or three color designs – like a simple business, organization or school logo. The stencils are made almost like pictures in a darkroom – essentially, Blenis replicates the image over a bunch of tiny holes on a screen. That screen is then placed on the eight-station press, which looks like a big octopus, pressed against a T-shirt and ran over with ink, forming the image on the other side.
Using the ink screen, the pair could make about 100 shirts an hour, Wolf says.
“It really depends on how many colors you’re working with,” he added, with more colors requiring more time.
Having both vinyl and ink allows the business to be more versatile, Blenis says.
“It’s nice to be able to work with both presses,” he said, adding that with the advent of the vinyl press, his life around Gus Macker Basketball Tournament time has gotten much easier with the multitude of team jersey orders that roll in.
Fine Line, like most all businesses these days, has its challenges. High shipping costs have impacted the operation the most, Blenis acknowledged. But he does admit that since each order is so individual, he is forced to keep a low inventory of shirts and clothing, taking shipments as needed.
“That allows me to keep a low overhead,” he said. “And most everything is coming from Pennsylvania or Massachusetts.”
As for customers, Fine Line has found a good mix of commercial and individual markets in Chenango County and beyond, stretching his customer base as far as Syracuse.
Fine Line is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. The shop also features a retail shirt outlet. For more information or to make an order, visit Fine Line Graphics’ web site at www.finelinegraphics.com.