When I first started this, my plan was to carve and block print designs onto tees. I loved the idea, and carving the designs was so fun, and I really enjoyed the entire process.
I looked into and researched as much as I could about block printing and consumed tons of content as I went. Picking up tips and tricks from carving a block to inking. My problem with it was I just couldn't get the details I wanted in the carve, so I dumbed down the designs and how it could look based on what I was capable of carving.
This is a skill that's developed over the years and a flow and technique you can't just jump into. Although my carvings were not terrible and basically turned out the way I wanted, it was the toned-down version of the designs that ate away at me.
The pros of block printing tees were that it's basically a print-on-demand situation. I can get an order for a certain tee and print it right away. I don't have tons of tees already printed sitting around. That helped me with inventory and selling what I needed.
The cons were just my own level of carving I was at, and not being able to get what I really wanted out of a look. I am obsessed with line quality and keeping things as clean as I can. This forced me to drop my standards and realize I just couldn't hit the mark, so I settled. I wasn't fond of that.
This also outweighed the pro of keeping inventory light.
I decided to move into the next phase, which was screen printing.