Giant weta tee: Mens

Don’t say “ooh!”, say “aah!!” for this design is one of the best-looking wetas you’ll see. This t-shirt pays homage to the rediscovery of an impressive species of New Zealand’s ‘insect dinosaur’, the Bluff weta, now known to inhabit the scree and rocky bluffs of the Kaikoura ranges and Mt Somers in mid-Canterbury.

Showcasing a twice life-size pixel-painted portrait on the front, with the option for a complimentar back print of another weta, this shirt brings the prehistoric giant to life. Once thought lost to history, the Bluff weta now roams freely, and this design captures that spirit.

The grey marle fabric mimics the texture of a mountain bluff, ensuring a comfortable fit. Available in a palette of light to mid-toned earth-toned colours to enhance the 3D effect of the weta casting a shadow, this design plays with clever shading and perspective to make the insect appear as if it’s truly standing on your shirt.

Choose from a variety of shirt styles, including short and long sleeves, for men, women, and kids at our Surface Active stores.

Purchase Options: Shop Locally or Internationally

Shop by ordering using the order form below to have it locally printed in Christchurch and DTF heat-pressed right here by the designer, in New Brighton, or shop online at our NZ based and international DTG printing partners. (Use code: “PERFEC” for 5% off your international store purchase.)

Choose how you shop for your giant weta t-shirt:

• shop online at our NZ based e-store based in Tauranga,
• and international e-store based in the United States
• from our retail outlet in New Brighton Mall; The Creatives Edit.
• alternatively order directly from me for a custom made heat-pressed t-shirt. Ideal for pick-up at my New Brighton Seaside Market stall, Saturdays 10 a.m.–2 p.m., for a cycle delivery locally, or to send via courier post.
• Note garment colour and size information is below the order form.

International customers will be charged the actual shipping cost based on the weight and the destination of their order. As a guide a Large Surface Active 185 gsm t-shirt weighs 130–150 grams.

Order Form For Custom T-Shirt Made by Shaun in New Brighton

Shaun Waugh from Surface Active is the guy creating you custom tee for you. With the assistance of his Christchurch custom DTF print provider Merch Kings. (Note: if you are a New Brighton local, he’s the t-Shirt man at the Saturday Brighton Market)

Shaun designs and heatpresses all his art on garments. The print quality delivered by the DTF printing process is exceptional. The finished product is carefully designed to be durable, reflecting the pride that Shaun has in hand-crafting his work.

Prices for medium weight 185 gsm t-shirts printed in New Brighton:

• Kids tees infant to toddler size, 1–4 yrs old: $20.00 plus shipping
• Kids t-shirts youth size, 6–14 yrs old: $20.00 plus shipping
• Mens/Unisex t-shirt: $57.50 plus shipping
• Womens t-shirt: $57.50 plus shipping

Prices for heavy weight 220gsm long sleeve t-shirts

• Mens/Unisex longsleeve t-shirt, heavy weight 220 gsm: $71.00 plus shipping
• Womens longsleeve t-shirt, heavy weight 220 gsm: $71.00 plus shipping

Shipping is via Courier Post, price starts at $8 for 1 adult shirt, $10 for two or more.

Customer Details

Bank Details

Bank: Kiwibank
Account Name: MagentaDot Limited
Account Number: 38-90090359221-00
Use Reference: Your name

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Details: Our high resolution artwork and water-based ink system ensure that our wildlife art prints are crisp and vibrant, the sharpness and details of small dots and fine lines is clear and well defined, the prints are securely bonded to the fabric, they feel soft, smooth and blended in with the garment. While our T-shirts are well made from 100% combed ring-spun cotton*, they’re constructed from 185gsm (mid-weight) fabric, pre-shrunk, anti-pill.

• Tight knit for superior printability and handfeel
• Side seams for better fit and to prevent twisting
• Shoulder to shoulder reinforcing tape
• Twin-needle stitching on body and sleeve hems

* Marle colours have a 15 percent viscose content to produce that classic marle look.

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Choose Colour (Note: Most popular set of shirt colours are emphasised in bold)

Choose size

The Design Inspiration: Great New Zealand Wildlife Photography

The inspiration for the design came from superlative wildlife photographer Rod Morris. Chrissie and I visited Rod’s image library in Dunedin back in the 90s to find slides that he had cherry-picked as having the potential to be developed into hand-separated wildlife art for screenprinting.

The Art of Reduction: Simplifying and Separating the Colours Involved Down to Creating Just Seven Stencils, Each Representing a Single Colour Used in the Original Screen Print

• From Millions of Colours to Seven: To simplify the pair of weta photos colour palette I launched Photoshop and opened my weta photos, then, relying on meticulous handwork I cut away the weta from their backgrounds and airbrushed their cast shadows.
• Choose Final Reproduction Size For Screenprinting: The resolution of the bitmap used to output the image must be sufficiently low resolution to enable single pixels of the final pixel painting to be able to be printed. The thread count, threads per cm, or denier, of the screenprinting screen used determines the maximum resolution or pixels per cm that can be printed. In simple terms a single pixel must be tuned to, no smaller than, the size of the gaps between threads in the mesh.
• Convert to Indexed Colour, Posterise: With careful selection this reduces the extensive colour palette range of the referece image to a limited pallette. Using the posterise filter helps create guides for pixel painting larger flat areas of colour.
• Use the Magic Wand Selection Tool: To accurately identify and isolate the specific colour hues, and tones of shadow and light in the reference photograph. Cut each separate colour onto its own layer
• Manual Selective Colour Adjustment: The layering of the colours in the Art down to five colour hues plus black and white corresponds to each separate stencil to be used to create a single-colour layer on the final print. I discovered Photoshop automatically did help me build up the image one colour at a time, in a layered photoshop document, however the look of the computer separated weta images lacked finesse.
• Colour Separation Finesse: Using the original image as reference I used the mouse as an electric pencil to first create a black keyline drawing of the weta which I then used as a guide to help me carefully, in layers, manually “colour in” the two weta as pixel paintings.
• Photolitho Platemaking Positives: The final set of registered mylar film positives for photo stencil making were output from a high resolution digital platemaking photolitho image setter.
• A Screen Printer’s Palette: The final set of desired colours were manually mixed using a Pantone Colour Formula Chart using the colour layers in the Photoshop pixel painted document as a guide.

DTF (Direct to Film) Printing Offers a More Streamlined Method to Reproduce my Wildlife Artwork on T-Shirts Compared to Traditional Screen Printing. Here’s Why:

• Digital Design: I create a digital composite image on a transparent background using—in the case of the weta—the six-colour separations from my screenprinted artwork.
• DTF Printing: This digital file is then printed onto a special film using my local DTF print provider Merch Kings.
• Heat Pressing: I then place the printed film on the blank t-shirt the customer has ordered and heat press it onto the shirt. The heat activates the adhesive on the film, permanently transferring the design onto the fabric.
• DTF printing eliminates the need for multiple screens and labour intensive multicolour hand screen printing. DTF printing simplifies the printing process for reproducing my artwork on t-shirts.

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The New Zealand Nature T-Shirt Company