I'm sure gonna miss you, GOCCO.
It dawned on me that I really don't post enough pics of my in-progress projects here in the studio. I'm in the market for a new camera, so, hopefully, once I have a better, more suitable one, posts like this one will be much more frequent (and less blurry ;)
This is the (near-extinct) GOCCO printer in action :: a set of custom. 2-color business cards for an Etsy customer and super-adorable hockey-themed baby shower invites for one of my favorite repeat clients!
I've really gotten quite attached to my (2) GOCCO printers, so I'm not really sure what I'm going to do once my supplies run out and I can't do jobs like this anymore. The move to the in-house letterpress will be quite bittersweet...
I'm not sure how much more detail to go into here with the process, the design, custom work, or the GOCCO printer itself - so, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to leave them in the comments!
*There's a nice group of GOCCO-related posts here, if you're interested.
(not so great) images by me ;)
Can you tell me more about your post Gocco plans? Of course my luck, I come across Gocco just as I hear its on the verge of extinction. But I love creating my own cards and invites, and am wondering what to possibly use at home that will give some nice touches.
tammy :: the trick is to use metallic ink... the hockey invites shown here are printed with silver metallic ink on black paper. And, since even the metallics are kind of light, the effect is really much better the darker your paper is. Depending on how light a shade that yellow paper is that you're using, you may still have trouble getting a light ink to show up on a light-colored stock.
Rae :: I'm gonna look into that Speedball system... I'll let you know what I find out!
I noticed in my Daniel Smith spring catalog that Speedball is now producing an all-in-one table top screen print system. Has anyone tried this out or seen it in person? Speedball products have always reasonably priced and well made, though their ink color range is really limited (an more student grade than artist grade). But I would love to hear any first hand reports!
Hi! I have a question re: your "hockey themed" project. i am a Gocco-owner and I'm crafting my own save the dates. I printed white ink onto Bazzill-card stock (in honey lemon color) but sadly, the white ink dried almost entirely transluscent and I now have to print 60 more with grey on yellow instead! Any tips as to how i could use white ink on colored paper going forward? It seems like you were able to make this work!
melissa :: I hope I can answer at least some of your questions -
I have two GOCCO machines: the larger one (shown here) and a smaller one (that prints up to approx. 4x6"). I bought the larger for about $350 a year-and-a-half ago, and the smaller (in a kit with bulbs, screens & inks) for about $130.00 more than 5 years ago... both from Paper Source.
PROCESS ::
The basic process is that the machine has a flash bulb compartment so that you can make your own screens using a laser print of your design. Essentially, anywhere that has the carbon toner from your printout is "knocked out" of the screen when the flash bulb goes off... this allows ink to pass through the screen only where your design was. The screens have a cardboard frame and a plastic overlay (to hold the ink) and you simply put ink on the places where the design is on the screen. You can print one color at a time, or you can use blocking on elements in the design that don't overlap in order to print multiple colors at once. (That's how I printed the business cards shown above - the blue text & the orange border were blocked out and printed all at once.)
The base of the machine has a sticky foam pad which is where you place the paper/card that you're printing. The stickiness of the pad is pretty amazing b/c it actually does lose its...
I've got a bunch of questions... how expensive is a machine like this? what is involved in making each piece?
i love to create my own stationary on the computer etc. and i would love to create our wedding invitations too. Not sure if it's worth getting a machine like this for such a project.
I've got my fingers crossed that someone is going to swoop in and buy the bulb factory or something. But it's been so long... they're starting to cramp a little.
R :: I'm in the same boat as you... I've got more ink than I can probably use up with the screens & bulbs I've got left. I'm hoping to come up with another use for those inks afterwards...
I know what you mean... I'm down to just a few screens, and everytime I have a gocco project, I cringe to lose another one... On the other hand, I'm probably going to have ink left when the screens are gone, so call if you're stuck!
<3 these em