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On the cover: Junior Tehya Hinkson sports one of the designs for the Halloween shirts she and sophomore Jennie Davis designed. Hinkson and Davis sold their shirts on Instagram. On this page: Davis (left) and Hinkson (right) work on ironing the vinyl designs on their shirts in their dorm room in Maddox Hall. The duo produced 77 shirts over the course of a few weeks. (photos courtesy of Tehya Hinkson and Jennie Davis) Scary business: Designing Halloween t-shirts

BY LANGLEY LEVERETT

Arts/Entertainment and Opinions Editor

Peel. Stick. Iron. Repeat. Orange and black shirts are in boxes around the room, the iron press is steaming and there’s an overwhelming smell of adhesive in the air. While the girls labor over their project, their Maddox dorm room has turned into a mini shirt factory.

Although many celebrate Halloween by watching scary movies or going to pumpkin patches, some students are showing their festivity in the way of creativity and production. Junior art education major Teyha Hinkson and junior elementary education major Jennie Davis decided to combine their interests of art and T-shirt printing in order to sell Halloween-themed shirts.

After creating several doodles, puns and color combinations, they decided on seven designs to sell. They made shirts for themselves and their friends to model, had a photoshoot, created graphics and displayed them on Instagram. They immediately began to receive orders from both the Ouachita community and other areas.

“The very first day, Monday, we sold like 30 shirts, maybe 40. And it was the first day. It was crazy. My favorite part has definitely been the reaction we’ve gotten from it because we have definitely exceeded our expectations,” Hinkson said. “We were like, ‘Oh yeah, we might sell 20 to 25,’ but we’ve literally sold 77 shirts, which is phenomenal because we’re two college students doing this in our dorm.”

Hinkson and Davis decided early on that they would complete weekly orders; at one point, they had over 50 orders to fulfill in seven days. Despite the time it takes to tailor, package and ship each item, Hinkson is content to be doing something that brings joy to both others and herself.

“I’m not seeing it as a burden. I’m not like ‘Man, I wish I hadn’t done this,’” Hinkson said. “I’m keeping that joy and that excitement from the very beginning to the end, even though it has been a process. I’m doing it because it makes me happy, but then getting to see other people get happiness from that is really awesome.”

Both Hinkson and Davis agree that they have complemented each other’s strengths throughout the process of completing this project. Even though their schedules can be busy, they both wanted to make sure they could enjoy their time creating the shirts together.

“I really enjoyed working with Tehya because it brought both of our talents together,” Davis said. “She got to do the designs and I got to bring them to life. She helped me a lot with the process of weeding and ironing the designs on the shirts.”

Davis created and sold shirts while she was in high school and has continued this for nearly five years. Hinkson has pursued art professionally since starting college, but has enjoyed art as a hobbby since she was 13. By combining talents and sharing passions both have been able to grow individually.

“It was fun getting to do what I did back in high school. These shirts would not have been as popular without her amazing designs,” Davis said. “This whole process taught me how to work with others and explore different ideas that aren’t your own.”

Hinkson and Davis will work to produce Christmas-themed shirts in November. For more updates, follow @tehyaann and @jenniedavis00 on Instagram.