Courtney Hodges silk screens a shirt.
Courtney Hodges has been providing screen printing, embroidery, laser engraving and more at her business, which she has operated since 2016.
By Rich Wicks | Panora Times
Most anyone who has parented multiple kids has learned to multi-task, and, maybe not coincidentally, multi-tasking is also a daily job skill for Courtney Hodges, owner of T & K Designs at 126 W. Main St. in Panora. The business is named for Tinsley and Kambri, the daughters of Courtney and her husband, Nate. She recently took a brief break to share information about her business.
Hodges had given birth to her second child in 2015 and had been doing embroidery out of her home, and she was considering making that work into a career.
“I started in 2016. It was kind of one of those things, you’re either going to do it or you’re not,” Hodges said. “Then this building became available. Jennifer Danker owned it, and she asked if I wanted to buy her building. So, we moved up here in 2016. We had to redo the place, and we started adding machines. I started with one embroidery machine, then added another and all the screen printing. I’ve been up here ever since, and business has been crazy good.”
Hodges was happy to describe the various creations she makes.
“We do a lot for schools and businesses,” Hodges said. “We do screen printing, embroidery, promotional items, koozies, notebooks, lanyards, keychains, and I actually have a laser machine that I can engrave cutting boards. So you send me a really clear picture of grandma’s recipe card, and I basically blow it up on my iPad and trace it exactly, and then I burn it into the cutting board, and it looks like the same handwriting.”
Hodges says one part of the offerings that people may not fully understand is screen printing.
“It’s super complex,” Hodges said. “You literally have a screen, and there’s different mesh types. You’ve got to wash it and dry it. You’ve got to degrease it. Before you put the emulsion on, it has to harden. Then you literally burn the design into the screen and dry it before you can print. Temperatures have to be right. It’s a lot of small details that are very important.”
Hodges says she can print on anything.
“We can do sweatshirts, we can do T-shirts, we can do jackets, we can do Carhartt. I can embroider on mostly anything, too.”
Because many area sports teams have apparel made at T & K Designs, Hodges explained she is used to doing “rush jobs” and accepts that as a normal part of her business. One example is when T-shirts are ordered for a team or individual athletes who qualify to compete at state tournaments. In such situations, she often has two days or less to complete an order. Hodges burns the midnight oil when needed to get the job done.
“There’s a lot of it… especially with wrestling and things like that. And usually there’s a front and a back…and they have to be able to order, and I have to order the shirts, too,” Hodges said.
Despite the hectic work schedule and her family commitments, Hodges somehow finds time to be involved in the community as well.
“I’m the parks and rec president, and then I’m on the planning and zoning board, and I’m part of the chamber. And then I also own ReGlow, the new spray tanning business at ReStore,” Hodges said. “Sue Bump and I are partners with that. We just started doing that in January.”
Incredibly, Hodges also finds time to coach two youth softball teams.
Although Hodges seems to thrive on fast-paced workloads, she encourages non-rush customers to plan ahead when possible. For most screen printing or embroidery jobs, she suggests customers plan ahead roughly two weeks so that she can squeeze in a rush order if needed and still get all orders done in time.
Looking to the future, Hodges expects screen printing and embroidery to continue to be popular orders.
“I would say the bulk of my business is probably screen printing, but embroidery is right up there. They’re pretty close,” Hodges said.
Hodges also shared a new offering she’s introducing.
“I’m actually working on something right now called PVC patches for hats,” she said. “It looks kind of like rubber, but it’s a patch that goes right on your hat.”
Asked if there’s something people are surprised that she offers, Hodges showed some of the apparel in her front window area.
“I do a lot of the Lake Panorama stuff,” Hodges said. “I’m pretty much the only place that does Lake Panorama apparel.”