Monday, November 05, 2007

Gocco Sunday

<<< What a freakin' mess!


Sunday should have been about getting organized and making products for my upcoming show, Handmade Arcade, here in Pittsburgh next weekend. But what did I do instead? I pulled out the Gocco printer (which I have had for a year or so) and decided to start using it. I have only used it one other time to mixed results. I guess I was thinking that it would be great to have some prints to sell at the show. This all goes back to my need to make something that doesn't get tossed out, like greeting cards.

This time around was much more fruitful than my previous attempt. So, introducing my first limited edition Gocco prints: "funky trees with bird in green"...ooh, such a clever name...

I had tons of fun with the Gocco, but what a mess I made! I was trying to limit myself to just two prints but did three...and was not happy with the third. I admit that I am still getting used to the whole process...like, how many prints can I make? what do I do with the used screens? and how long do the prints have to dry? I have read that you can clean the screens and/or freeze them and reuse. I also feel like I wasted a lot of ink. And the used light bulbs...what to do with those? I hate to throw them out. Anyway, it was quite a fun and creative Sunday!

Tip: Old CD racks make great drying racks!

10 comments:

~Stella said...

I also feel like I waste a lot of ink with Gocco. If you're doing it every day, you can scrape the ink out with a palette knife and store it in the bottom corner of a ziplock bag. Then, when you want to use it again, you just cut off the corner of the bag and squeeze it onto the screen. It does not keep long in there but I bet it would go for a week or so.

We save the screens but we have never actually reused them. We have the screen cleaner and we use that but we just never seem to want to make the same design a second time around.

Your prints turned out lovely! We really only use our Gocco for personal use...every year we pull it out to make our holiday greeting cards (over 100 of them!). I haven't made anything for the shop with it because I have no drawing talent whatsoever. But *you* do and I love your trees!

Stella

pinkbathtub said...

Thanks so much Stella for your nice comments and advice! I love the ziplock bag idea.

Cathy said...

the design looks great - how does a gocco printer actually work? have heard a lot of people mention them, but have no idea how they operate! obviously messy by the sounds of things lol
(scrap4u)

pinkbathtub said...

Thanks Cathy. Here's a tutorial which can explain how it works much better than I can:)

http://www.thesmallobject.com/tutorials/GoccoTutorial.html

Reader Of The Pack said...

I love the prints!

I save my screens. I stick them in a ziploc bag in the fridge. I have reused the chicken butt screen many, many times.

The flash bulbs though... I have no good recommendations. It does suck to have to throw them out.

pinkbathtub said...

Dixie, do you just scrape the extra ink off and refrig or clean first, then refrig?

Reader Of The Pack said...

Oh, I scrape off the excess ink with cardstock, clean with the gocco cleaner and then refrigerate.

pinkbathtub said...

Thanks Dixie!

Anonymous said...

Looks like great fun !

Funky Finds said...

I SOOO want a Gocco! I wanted to let you know that I recently posted a recap of the Stitch indie craft bazaar in Austin, Texas. I am also hosting a swag bag giveaway. I'd love for you to enter & to pass the word on to your friends!
Cheers,
Jessica
http://www.funkyfinds.blogspot.com