"Warsh Your Hands" Shirt, Soap, and Digital Snowflake PREORDER

"Warsh Your Hands" is a collaboration between three Western Pennsylvania queer-owned small businesses. We're teaming up to bring you a fun way to wear your PA pride, reduce the spread of bacteria and viruses, keep your skin cleansed and nourished, and support independent queer makers during a time of particularly heightened economic uncertainty.

Why "Warsh," you ask? Formally called an "epenthetic" (intruding) sound, the R that sometimes finds its way into words like "warter" and "warsh" is a characteristic of Western Pennsylvania English, AKA "Pittsburghese," as well as Appalachian dialects. Just as our warterways are the foundations of our respective cities, we hope you'll join us in championing handwarshing as a foundation of public health by wearing this shirt wherever you go. Yes, we know you're not going many places, and that's a good thing. It's the right thing. So remind your family and pets and neighbors from a safe distance, and take pictures and post them online. Hold onto these habits we're building--even under normal circumstances we have an obligation to reduce the risks workers take when providing necessary services to keep society running.

About the makers:

Sue Kerr, national award-winning blogger and owner of this website, the longest running LGBT blog in Pennsylvania, conceived of this collaboration. Included in your package purchase is a digital "snowflake," a visual representation of your investment in progressive work through the Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents blog projects. Each snowflake carries a message, so be sure to use the "notes" box at checkout to tell us what you'd like your snowflake to say.

Shirts are designed and printed by Etna Print Circus, a trans- and queer-owned clothing company and screen print shop based in the Pittsburgh borough of Etna. For this project, they've worked with Sue to select and design a super-soft, sweatshop-free t-shirt in an inclusive size range.

About the shirts:

T-shirts will be screen printed on a Bella+Canvas 3001 in turquoise. These shirts are 4.2 oz. 100% airlume combed and ringspun cotton, with coverstiched collar and sleeves, shoulder-to-shoulder taping, and side seams. They're slightly more fitted than a standard t-shirt.

Both soap varieties are handmade by Dragonfly Lake Scents, a queer owned artisan bath and body company. Dragonfly Lake Scents specializes in small batch, handmade bath and body products made from local ingredients such as locally roasted coffee, beer, beeswax and honey. They grow and dry 80% of our botanicals for their products.

About the soap choices:

Raw Goat's Milk Oat and Honey
This is a lovely, gentle soap for those with sensitive skin who also like a little bit of fragrance! It is made with locally sourced, fresh, raw goat's milk that is never heated. First we strain the grass out of the fresh goat's milk, then freeze it to keep all the natural fats and lipids intact. We then add ground oats for exfoliation and a light almond fragrance, then turn it into soap! If you like a luxurious bar with a bit of fragrance, that is suitable for everyone, this is the soap for you.

Grapefruit and Mint
This soap is perfect for those who love citrus scents with a touch of mint. Imagine the scent of ripe, tangy grapefruit combined with crisp, garden fresh mint. It is juicy and fresh with the sharpness of mint that together gives the soap a complex scent. You will not be disappointed with this one!

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A PREORDER.

What does this mean?

Mostly, it means that it'll take about 2 weeks for your purchase to arrive. Since we're collaborating remotely, from two locations in Pittsburgh and one in Erie, instead of building up a large advance inventory and shipping products from multiple locations, we're doing preorders. Sue will collect orders on this website and Dragonfly Lake Scents will ship the bulk soap order to Etna Print Circus. Etna Print Circus will print shirts based on the sizes requested and pack and ship the shirt-and-soap packages.

Use code "LOCALPICKUP" if you would prefer to save on shipping and collect your package from Etna. We will notify you by text or email when your package is ready, and social distance/no contact practices will be strictly observed.