This evening after work, I took the Intro Gocco Class at the IPRC - taught by the marvelous Gretchin of Scarlet Star Studios! A Gocco is a Japanese home silk screening tool that allows you to make small (4"x6") prints of any line or high-contrast artwork you can photocopy. Of course, now that I'm hooked, the rumor is that Gocco is no longer being distributed in the U.S. *sigh* I've had one sitting in the garage, and as a former silkscreener, it's been on my "I really want to learn to do this" list. Tonight, I decided to start my Gocco print adventure by drawing little bat images, using the bat finger puppet that was in my Christmas stocking as a model:
(The little "flash, squish" in the upper corner of the drawing were my notes on cool words that Gretchin used while describing the Gocco printing process - "flashing" to burn the screen, and "squishing" to ink and print the screen. Now, of course, I want to make shirts that say: "scribble, flash, squish - Gocco!")
And here is my first print - the drawing moved on the bed when I flashed the screen, so half his little wing got cut off - but other than that, I'm pretty happy with the detail! And, you can print on fabric. I'm thinking it would be a lot of fun to combine this with the foam prints - the delicate detail on top of the rich texture would be really lovely . . .
And there's an advanced Gocco class coming up at the IPRC on January 26th - taught by Shu-Ju Wang, your go-to Gocco gal. I won't be able to make this one, but I'm on it for next time! If you don't live in Portland and you're curious about the Gocco (pronounced "go co," rhymes with "loco") here's a great - if old - blog entry on it at getcrafty.com from Nancy Flynn.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
My First Gocco
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7 comments:
That's one cute little bat you got there....
very cute bat! i believe you can still buy goccos through paper source (www.paper-source.com). i've been so interested in trying them out myself. one of these days!
Thanks for the bat compliments! My finger puppet seems pleased with the portraiture . . . easy client.
Leah: definitely try one if you can! You can also get the smaller goccos on etsy.com - there's an expat living in Japan who will ship them out. There are also some other folks still selling supplies. (I did a bunch of googling and ordering after I posted!)
awesome, bridget. i can't believe you just sat down & drew that before the class began! btw, i saw this article & think it's a pretty good starting place for gocco:
http://www.diylife.com/2007/12/14/diy-definitions-print-gocco/
but more importantly: oo, what did you order & from where? :D
gl: I ordered a bunch of inks - including textile inks, a few Gocco carbon pens, some screens, and some bulbs (turns out I had the stamper at home already, along with some basic inks, bulbs, and screens - but I'm a big one for being prepared!) I ordered the stuff from http://www.thinkink.net (they had the best selection), though I also found things at www.welshproducts.com
i understand: i'm a "spectrum" buyer: i like to have a whole range of something so i don't haggle with myself about it later.
may i add thinkink & welsh products to the resource list so that everyone knows about them?
Please do add them to the list!!! I also checked out www.paper-source.com per Leah, Ms. Creative Every Day, and while they don't have machines right now, they do offer refill supplies and some inks.
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