Meet Melanie Inman | Owner, Printer, Embroiderer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Melanie Inman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Melanie, what’s something about your industry that outsiders are probably unaware of?
There is so much behind the scenes work that goes into the embroidery and screen printing process! Since the vinyl cutting machines are so easily accessible and many people have them, it seems as though many people don’t understand the legwork that goes into the work that we do. With every new embroidery project, the design has to be digitized. Once that process is done, we can re-use that same file over and over again. Without that file, though, our embroidery machines can’t do their amazing work! With digitizing comes a whole information sheet about the stitch count, which thread colors to use (did you also know that there are THOUSANDS of thread types and colors?!), and which order those colors will stitch out in. With every new screen printing project, we have to separate the layers of colors into print-ready files (we REALLY love it when our customers have this done for us already!). We print an all black image of each color onto a transparency “film,” have the correct size screen coated AND dried with emulsion, line the film up on the screen for accurate print placement. Then, we expose the screen with an LED exposure unit (exposure times vary too!), wash the screen out (to perfection- making sure every single detail comes out of the emulsion… all while maintaining a red light safe area!), and wait for that to dry. Once that screen is dry, we can set it up on the press, lined up with the appropriate platen, making sure to center and level the whole print. And honestly, that’s just the half of it. It really is quite the delicate process!

Another thing that many don’t know is that every single item we make is made to order! We typically do not carry stock of any item, simply because we can get such a huge variety of apparel and promotional items, and want to continue to be able to offer all of those things to our customers.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We are absolutely most proud of building this business from the ground up! We had no family/friend background, we are not a dual-owned partnership business, we simply started with an idea and grew from there! It’s wasn’t easy, no. I can remember a few different occasions that included tears and frustrations. To know we stomped over the bumps in the road is a pretty amazing feeling.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We love West Michigan, especially in the summer. If we had a week in the summer to just go play, we’d be headed to Torch Lake, for sure! The water is so crystal clear, there are boats that serve food at the sand bar, and everybody there has the same goal in mind- sunshine & summertime!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Way early on, before the business was actually a business, we talked to a fellow screen printer, Jerry Kennedy. He was a teacher in the school district we live in (and actually taught our parents in school, haha!), who did a little side screen printing. He offered us a generous amount of information and remains our main contact for any bumps in the road now that we may encounter. I really think that without his information, we wouldn’t have been able to jump right out of the gate like we did.

Website: www.BHCScreenPrinting.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BHCscreenprinting