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Vagabond Journey T Shirts

Wear what you read — Vagabond Journey T Shirts — The Brooklyn based woodblock printer and Vagabond Journey resident artist, Justin Catania, has just carved out a print to make Vagabond Journey t-shirts. I have been wanting to make some traveling t-shirts for Vagabondjourney.com for a long time, now, and when Justin suggested that he [...]

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Wear what you read — Vagabond Journey T Shirts —

The Brooklyn based woodblock printer and Vagabond Journey resident artist, Justin Catania, has just carved out a print to make Vagabond Journey t-shirts.

I have been wanting to make some traveling t-shirts for Vagabondjourney.com for a long time, now, and when Justin suggested that he could help, I enlisted him into the project immediately.

He is a good artist, and I knew that he could produce a design that hits the essence of this Vagabond Journey project far more poignantly that I ever could.

My t-shirt designs consisted of a stick man with a backpack smoking a pipe, while Justin came up with this:

Print for Vagabond Journey t-shirt design

Print for Vagabond Journey t-shirt design

I would wear a t-shirt that had this printed on it .  . .  and I probably will. The t-shirt that I have been wearing almost every day for the past year was also made by Justin, and it is about time that I get another shirt to rotate it with.

The photo above shows the linoleum “stencil” that will be used to make prints of this design on t-shirts. “I didn’t have any wood on me, but its the same idea,” Justin wrote to explain why the he carved the design into linoleum rather than a wood block.

Basically, when Justin prints the shirts, he will roll ink onto the linoleum stencil and then use it to press the ink into the t-shirt. the raised “positive space” of the stencil will become the design on the shirt.

It is an amazing feeling when conjecture and intention finds inertia on the journey to actualization. For a long time Justin and I have been talking about making these shirts, and now it is happening. This project is now actualized, Vagabond Journey has been officially t-shirted.

I am now searching for a wholesaler that could get us a mass of plain white t-shirts quickly and easily. I found Jiffyshirts.com, and they boast that they can get me shirts for $2 a piece with free shipping that is suppose to only take a few days, while Justin knows of a reliable wholesaler in Brooklyn that sells similar t-shirts for what seems to be a slightly higher cost, but he would be able to pick them up himself.

I like to keep my variables as few as possible when it comes to making an investment, and the fact that Justin could walk somewhere and grab our purchase with his own two hands and then walk it back to his workshop with it sounds pretty good to me.

These shirts should be printed up an ready to go in a week or two. It would be really good to start collecting orders now so that we know how many to run through the first printing.

These shirts are meant to raise funds for Vagabond Journey.com as well as Justin and his art. We are going to start out selling them at 15USD a piece including domestic (United States) shipping, and 18USD for international orders.

I figure that if it costs $5 to purchase supplies and ship each shirt, $10 will be left for Justin and I to split. If we are able to sell 200 shirts, we would each be able to put $1,000 into our projects.

My project is traveling and publishing Vagabond Journey.com, and Justin’s is making his woodblock prints.

Support obsessive, bullheaded, and stubborn artists who will not read the writing on the wall that says “You cannot make a living off your craftsmanship! Get a real job!,” and buy a Vagabond Journey t-shirt.

Each dollar that I make off of this website, each time Justin sells a piece of his art, each time a reader makes a contribution, each t-shirt that we will soon sell brings us a little closer to chipping through that great brick wall and coming out the other side.

It may take a lifetime of gnawing, but I know that we shall one day meet each other in that land of requited craftsmen . . .

To make an advance order for Vagabond Journey t-shirts, you can make your payment through the donate button below.


Buy a Vagabond Journey t-shirt

Thank you,

Wade and Justin

Justin Catania Art on Vagabond Journey.com

Vagabond Journey Feature Articles with illustrations by Justin Catania:

Filed under: Vagabond Journey Updates

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 91 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3699 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: New York City

5 comments… add one

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  • reina September 3, 2009, 6:18 am

    Hi Wade
    What sizes and colors are u offering? Will this be printed on front or back? Will it be this big? (Something smaller, less in your face, would be rather attractive….)
    Thanks

    Link Reply
    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com September 3, 2009, 9:47 pm

      Hello Reina,

      I basically am just trying to get an idea of how many shirts to print based upon how many people seem to want them.

      For now, I think that we are just going to print them on a standard white t-shirt . . . but if you would like a certain color just tell me and I can order you a special shirt.

      It is my impression that the print that Justin was holding is out a ways from his chest, so it makes it seem bigger. I do not think that the design will really be this large. When the t-shirts start getting printed, I will take more photos of them. Right now, I just want to take a survey of how many people are interested so I know around how many to print. I will talk to Justin about making a design that has a smaller logo . . . but this may take a long time.

      Thanks,

      Wade

      Link Reply
  • Scott McArthur September 3, 2009, 9:54 am

    hey Wade, the link to buy the shirts does not work. It just sends me straight to the regular PayPal site.

    Link Reply
    • Wade | Vagabond Journey.com September 3, 2009, 9:43 pm

      Hello Scott,

      I fixed it!

      Thanks for telling me about this.

      Wade

      Link Reply
  • Pearl September 4, 2009, 5:44 am

    I’M INTERESTED!
    I reckon the logo would look better big, actually…
    Great idea.

    Pearl

    Link Reply