During Marietta’s First Friday, a young artist and entrepreneur will be offering three different children’s T-shirts she designed and helped print — with a little help from her dad. Eight-year-old Elle Rosenstock will be on site from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. at JustAJar, father Bobby Rosenstock’s print shop on Front Street, selling kids’ size versions of her three custom designs. Extra stock will be available for purchase online after the downtown Marietta event.

Inspired by a nature TV program, Elle Rosenstock drew her first shirt’s illustration on paper. “We watched a documentary about sloths,” she said. “The next day, I made a drawing of a sloth.”

Elle sporting her sloth design, in front of the new murals installed behind Second Street

Elle took it to the next level by imaging the drawing as a T-shirt, with the word “Chillin’” below it. Her father helped make it a reality by transferring his daughter’s drawing to wood and carving it as a print block. He and his daughter then printed the designs on an etching press with inks.

The presses aren’t really meant to be printed onto fabric but it can be done, Bobby Rosenstock admitted. They kept the quantity small, making just 30 T-shirts of each of the three designs, ranging in children’s sizes from extra small to extra large. During First Friday only, each shirt will be for sale for $10.

Elle rolls ink on the carved design

The second design is an amphibian over the word “Toadally,” and the third is a cow with “Cowabunga” emblazoned below it.

“I thought of the animals first and then the words,” said Elle Rosenstock of her creative process. “All of the prints we made are of animals.”

Bobby Rosenstock is glad to encourage his daughter’s creative instincts.

“We thought it would make a cool T-shirt,” he said of the initial sloth drawing. “She just started coming up with other ideas of funny T-shirts.”

Elle wears “Cowabunga!” in front of the newly installed murals

When they finished their print run, they took photos of Elle showing off all three designs.

“We had a lot of fun doing a photoshoot in front of the new murals in Marietta,” said Bobby Rosenstock.

While this is their first T-shirt venture together, it is not the father and daughter’s first creative partnership. “We made posters before,” explained Elle Rosenstock.

Elle said her favorite part of the project was drawing the illustrations. Her father added that she is becoming an experienced printer as well.

“She already knows how to do a lot,” Bobby Rosenstock said. “She helps crank the press. She’s a good helper in the print shop.”
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