An agreement built on trust
After the totes, I started messing around making myself some shirts, and 3 weeks after the tote drop, I posted a picture of a shirt that I made for myself, it didn't have her name on it yet, but It was based on the "Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire" and it was a hand drawn heart with "Time Lied" carved into it, and... she liked it, and reposted it... and said... well the screenshots are here for your viewing pleasure. This was the first moment where I thought... maybe I can really do this... maybe I could design shirts for her, bring something new and real to Planet Hersh. Not just for me, but for other people who felt like me. Give Hersh the merch she deserved, and Hersh people the merch they deserved too...
From drawing to wild shirt... hard to believe all that has happened in the last couple of years... since this moment... another Hersh truth... time lies to us all the time...
and as I got more confident with making things for myself, bought some used screens, (A4, still too small really) experimented with other water based inks... practiced burning screens and printing shirts, I started to think that I could really do this, that I could do T-Shirts with logo's and send them to people.... so... I made her that offer... and she agreed that If I wanted to do that, I could... and then... I decided that fuck it, I would offer her my designs too, I had the Bywater fish drawn out and I already had a Palmetto design (one that still hasn't seen the light of day, but will), the Time Lied so I did, and I gave her an out, said that I wasn't offended if she said no, Understood if she didn't want those things with her name on it, and, I meant it (Aphantasia doing really great superpower work here) but, to my surprise (even now) She said yes. She said she would love for my designs to be a part of it....
That's when it became real....
So, I made a bunch of test prints, 3 logos (Throwing Muses 1986, KH classic, 50 Foot Wave swimming logo) and the 4 original ElRat Shirts, "Bywater", "Time Lied" (now with added KH lettering along the top) "Palmetto" (not the one I'd thought it was going to be, the incredibly unpopular gig flyer one that I drew on a whim and fell in love with, and because I wanted there to be something 50 Foot Wave too, the "Staring into the Sun" shirt. I sent her pics, and she said yes to all of them, even then, I didn't really think that my designs would sell, but I thought it cool that they were now "Approved by The One Hersh"... and it has never stopped working like that, I send test pics, Hersh (Dis)approves as she sees fit.
That's when I suddenly realised the big problem... I had jumped in with both feet... made this commitment to Hersh, without really thinking it through... and once I had the approval and started looking at trying to build it, reality came crashing... I don't know how to build a website, I hate money things, I am terrified of (and clueless about) having to do book keeping, terrified of having to deal with HMRC, I have absolutely no clue how it all works, what I need to do, and on top of all that, I have no stock, and very little money (I had done my test prints on shirts I'd got cheap from the charity shop, all my shirts I made for myself had been made with charity shop purchases).... BUT... I had already committed, and I couldn't back down...
That commitment was the key to it all... that's the thing that stopped me running away when reality hit.... without that, I never would have got it off the ground, because the what ifs and the how am I gonna do that would have gotten to me. But I couldn't let her down, and still can't.... she trusted me to do this for her, and I cannot do anything except do the thing I said I would do... not because of a contract....but because two humans with ASD came to an agreement to do a thing. It doesn't need any more than that.
So, I dug in, and worked out what I could, made the first month preorder only so that I could use the money to buy the shirts I needed for the orders, cobbled together an awful but useable website, got a small amount of bookkeeping advice off a friend's husband and went for it... and here we are, 2 years later... and I will hold this up for as long as I can and keep trying to build it, keep spreading this positive thing through the community, through everyone who comes into Planet ElRat...
Because I love this place, love what it has become
The four original ElRat/Hersh shirts, from the ever popular Bywater, to the unpopular Palmetto "Junkie Days Inn"... All equally loved by me, and all still available at ElRat Designs. Be the Strange(l)
What I got out of this
My friend has been telling me for years that I should sell shirts I make, and it felt impossible for all of the reasons I already expressed, and more... but now, people come to my website and get to see my art, not just my Hersh designs, but my own random crazy head stuff too.... and that never would have happened without this thing I started with Hersh.
I didn't think about this in advance and didn't expect it, but building ElRat Designs gave me something I'd never had before: a place of my own, where I fit.
Mae Rose Owens here modelling the Copper NanoTubes T-Shirt. She did great work, but due to an armpit injury has had to retire from the modelling game. She's still part of the ElRat Designs family, albeit now in a more managerial role.🖤
I have ASD, Aphantasia, and SDAM. I spent 50 years not knowing I had ASD (and 49 years not knowing other people actually really do see pictures in their heads). All my life I felt wrong, like I didn't fit with the world, like there was something fundamentally broken about me.
Now I'm done hiding and masking and pretending. I'm creating my own part of the world that I do fit into. Planet ElRat.... a place where things work how they should, where people get treated like individuals, and everyone who buys something, everyone who steps into this space - they're all part of the story. People who see what I do and grab onto it. I'm completely blown away and humbled by it every single time.
It really is a beautiful thing, and whenever Hersh has said how grateful she is, I remind her that I get at least as much out of all of this as she does... probably more.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can I buy Kristin Hersh merch and know the money goes to her?
There are three places only:
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KristinHersh.com - Her own website with books, vinyl, CDs, downloads, Tip Jar, and Strange Angel subscriptions
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ElRat Designs - Every Hersh item funds studio time, every time
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Merch table at her shows - Direct artist support
Everything else - even the stuff that is technically official... the money doesn't reach her the way people assume.
What makes ElRat Designs different?
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Hand-pulled screen printing - One person (me) making everything on my dining table
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Print-to-order - No massive stock, which means I have to print to order, but, that's not a drawback, it means I can offer sizes XS-6XL for every single shirt on the store, and it means you can choose your own colour combos
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Custom colours at standard price - If it doesn't cost me extra, it doesn't cost you extra. People have made colour combinations I never would have chosen, and they look amazing... the shirt of your dreams for a standard print price
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Eco-friendly everything - Water-based inks, tissue paper wrapping, compostable mailers, paper stickers, paper screen tape, I do everything I can to minimise waste, including rescuing misprints, and using waste ink to make art shirts... I am always looking for ways to make things more sustainable
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People, not order numbers - You're not a profit margin. You're a real person who decided to trust me, and you can talk to me at all stages of the process, and you can talk to me about Hersh music at any time, whether you're ordering or not
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Hershverse blog - The Hershverse is a community blog, originally talked about with my friend Jason, when we floated the idea of a website where anyone from the Hersh community could post their things, whatever they might be, Photographs, stories, writing, record collections... anything, if it's inspired by Hersh, it belongs in the Hershverse. You can email me about anything you want to submit at hershverse@elratdesigns.co.uk
Most people don't offer sizes up to 6XL, why do you?
Because art is for everyone, and merch should be too.
When I was first starting ElRat Designs, I was obviously talking a little bit about what was going on with some friends, and in a quiet moment one of them said to me, "you know, I've never been able to buy a band shirt... I've been to see lots of bands live, and I want to support them, but I've never been able to buy a T-Shirt from the merch table, I used to ask, but they never catered for my size, just dismissed me... and eventually I just stopped asking because I was too embarrassed."
That statement broke my heart, and gave me insight into something its very difficult to see unless you live it... and I promised myself right then, that everyone would be welcome in the place that I build.
Print-to-order means I don't have to hold tonnes of 6XL stock - I can offer every size up to 6XL and give everyone the same choices. Nobody gets excluded... everyone deserves to wear their art.
I wrote a blog post about this, if you're so inclined.
What are the handwritten lyric shirts?
London, April 2024
London, June 2025
I had this idea for years - I wanted some lyrics as a tattoo, but I really felt like they needed to be in Hersh's handwriting. I figured if I wanted that, maybe other people would want their own custom lyric on a T-Shirt. So I asked her if she'd be up for it, and she said yes.
So, while she was in London in April 2024, The One Kristin Hersh handwrote lyrics especially for ElRat Designs. Some were custom (people choose any lyric they want, she writes and signs it, they get a one-off shirt with that lyric however they want it). Some are standard prints at the same price as everything else - because I don't like exceptionalism.
We offered the custom Lyric shirts again in 2025, and she wrote those in June 2025, between the two parts of the Throwing Muses Tour.
We will hopefully be offering these again, pre-order will run for a 4-6weeks before the next time KH is over here (to give you time to choose your lyric(the hardest part of the whole thing😆))
"You only know Secret Codes"
Someone I know said they were like our secret handshake, because nobody except for one of us, would ever know what they were if they saw them... and... I love this idea that we have our own secret code...
If you would like to get the heads up...
for the next time we are offering these exclusive T-Shirts, please sign up for the mailing list, I am slackAF on the mailouts, so you absolutely won't be inundated... but will definitely be sending one out about this as soon as we are ready for the preorder to open.
Saw This "Dark Blue" Lyric shirt at the Throwing Muses show in Edinburgh (Left), and this "Lazy Eye" all the way from Rhode Island USA at the Electric Ballroom show in London (Right)
What are the Rorschach ink blot shirts?
Many years ago I made myself a Rorschach T-shirt. I loved it, I wanted to make more, but it was a pain to make, so for a long long time I was wondering how I could recreate this consistently. I finally cracked it.
These are genuine one-off ElRat Designs Rorschach ink blot t-shirts - there will never be another one exactly like any of them. They're not screen printed, but they use the same eco friendly water based ink. I use specially made foldable screens and let the ink create its own pattern, just like the original Rorschach test.
Psychoanalyse your family and friends... what you see is a window into your psyche (well... maybe not, but its still fun to see what people see) In mine, I saw Walter White from Breaking Bad. I made one for my kid, and it was a crab wearing a gas mask. There's no right or wrong answer.
When you wear one of these shirts, you're wearing something unique, a piece of art, you're wearing a perfect conversation starter. People will look at your shirt and see different things, and its fascinating to see what those things are.
What do you see? feel free to comment.
What are Messy Print shirts?
A Messy print is a standard screen print design, printed in a crazy messy all over print. The print is splatted all over the shirt, I don't wait for any of it to dry, just put on my headphones and go for it. Because of the process, they are undoubtedly full of "imperfections" fingerprints, ghost prints, smears and other things due to the shirt being turned and reprinted while its still wet.
What you end up with, is a wrap around all over printed, one of a kind human made art T-Shirt.
I love making these, they are completely unplanned, and made to order.
Because they are made to order, you can choose whatever colour combo you like, if you want red ink on black, or violet ink on Carolina Blue, then you can. Use our design your own custom messy print page to choose any colour in stock.
Your T-shirt will not be perfect, but it will be yours.
What are Messy Artist shirts?
I hate waste. After screen printing, there's always leftover ink that would get washed down the drain. So I started using fresh shirts to clear the ink - scraping as much as I can off the screen, then mopping the rest with a shirt, turning and scrunching it.
They grow into these organic patterns, colours decided by whatever I happen to be printing. Some have fluorescent ink smears. Each one is completely unique and will never be repeated.
Completely sustainable one of a kind abstract shirts... That ink was gonna be washed away, and now it made beautiful art. That's pretty cool I think.
Creating something from waste, an experiment in upcycling art. I think these look amazing!
What about misprints?
I hate waste, and for a long time, when I messed up prints, I just put them in a bag because I didn't really know what to do with them. I couldn't bring myself to scrap them all, but it occurred to me that I love tie-dying, so why not just have a go at making something cool out if them and sell them at a bargain price.
I figured, if I would wear it, it's good to sell. Often I can't work out why I deemed something a misprint in the first place - they all went in a bag, and when I came back to them, I couldn't see anything wrong with most of them.
Sometimes things are a little off-centre, and I spiral twist them which kind of pulls it back in line (or at least makes your eyes struggle to see it's off). The misprints have been really popular. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your POV), I make a lot less fuck-ups now, so there might not be an endless supply... I will just have to come up with something else I guess... because I loved making these, and they came out brilliantly.
I really wanted to keep this one, and I would have had it been my size, was so lovely to see it again on this wonderful human at the Throwing Muses gig in Liverpool
Why water-based ink?
Because it's better ecologically, but also because I hate plastisol. I hate when you get those shirts that feel like they have a sheet of plastic on them - all stiff, and the prints crack and don't last. People use it because it's easier to work with, but its horrible stuff, in every way.
The FlatFox ink I use gives good coverage, cures to a soft comfortable finish, and I'm a lazy launderer who doesn't follow my own care instructions at all - I've never had a print fade in the 2 years I've been using that ink. It's a double (triple?) winner.
What does "Be the Strange" mean?
It's ElRat Designs' general tagline. For Hersh-related products, it becomes "Be the Strange(l)" - a wordplay on "Strange Angels" (what Kristin Hersh listeners are called, shortened to "Strangels").
But really, it's the whole philosophy of ElRat Designs, as I said earlier in the blog, I spent my whole life thinking there was something wrong with me, wondering why I felt so wrong in the world, and now I understand that I have ASD, and Aphantasia, and SDAM.... and... in reality... those things are part of the individual that I am, the more i talked with people about my inner workings, the more i realised that everyone has their own unique inner workings, and I can't help thinking, that if we all embraced those things that are inside us, the weird and strange things that make us who we are, instead of hiding them and trying to fit in with the world... well... the world wouldn't be the mess it is.
Embrace your weird, the things that makes you different, not broken... and never be ashamed of it.
Be the Strange
You are an amazing Human, never forget it
Do you want to see my shirt "in the wild"?
Yes! I have a whole blog of Wild Shirt photos - people wearing ElRat things out in the world. If you're wearing one of my shirts and don't mind a photo, (head on or off) send it to wild@elratdesigns.co.uk. Let me know if it's just for me, or if I can post it online, let me know if you want tagging, or not. If I see you out and about, I will likely ask you, I always ask permission and offer to crop faces if you prefer. I will add all of them to the site at some point, if you see your Wild Shirt picture anywhere on the site, message me for a 10% off code as a small thank you.
Seeing my shirts in the wild makes me smile every single time - all these beautiful people wearing things that I made.
What's your tattoo?
"We're gonna die so what the fuck, we're only here through sheer dumb luck" from "Between Piety and Desire" off the album "Wyatt at the Coyote Palace"
Handwritten by Kristin Hersh. It's the most perfect statement of truth - it resonates perfectly with what I believe about the world. We're gonna die, and we're an accident of nature. The only breath guaranteed is the one in your lungs right now.
That's not bleak. That's freeing. It means you have to grab the things that matter while you can. Not tomorrow, not next week. Now. In this moment.
I wrote a blog post about this if you're interested.
Why do you call Kristin Hersh, "Hersh"?
On the day my daughter was born, she became Kristin, and Hersh became Hersh. It just saves a lot of confusion in my world.
Skip to the end
ElRat Designs started as a practical idea to help with studio time, but it's become so much more than that. It's a place where I finally fit. A place where people are treated like humans, not transactions. A place where passion and commitment and fairness actually mean something.
Every Hersh shirt directly funds Kristin Hersh Studio time, and every ElRat shirt directly funds a UK artist, and helps me to keep this thing moving forward.
ElRat Designs is not for everybody, and it's not meant to be. I'm only here to make things I like and send them off into the world. And I'm eternally grateful that The One Hersh allowed me to do this for her, and for me. It really is a perfectly beautiful endeavour.
Support the Art you Love 🖤
Be the Strange(l)
