O-M-Gocco! (Part 2)

Here you'll see the materials you need for your Gocco adventure.  Clockwise from top, you need the Printo Gocco, itself, drying racks, the Gocco lamp (and bulbs, in the yellow box), a Gocco screen, your image, foam ink block and scissors, something to print your image on, Gocco screen printing ink.

First I took my original image. I drew it small because I wasn't going to have a lot of space to print on, anyway. The Gocco machines only allow for a print area of about 3.5" x 5.5". It's tiny, but there are options for you to get a larger image later on. I cut down my image after it was drawn, separating the elements of the clouds and the fox.

I then Xeroxed my image and shrank it just a bit to ensure that the entire image, with all elements included, would fit into the allotted space given for Gocco printing. You Xerox the image so that you have an image that has ink printed with carbon elements. Most Gocco kits come with a pen that contains carbon so you can skip the Xeroxing step, but since my kit came used and did not include the pen, I had to Xerox my image.

This is the Xeroxed image placed on the stick pad that is inside of the Gocco machine. I have also loaded the Gocco screen onto the machine and placed the lamp and bulbs on top of the machine all together. (Sorry for not documenting those aspects very well!)

After you put your lamp with bulbs on the machine, have loaded the Gocco screen, and have your image on the sticky pad, you close the arm to the machine, and push down. The bulbs flash, and your screen is burnt! It's a little hard to believe, but as long as you see the flash, you've got a burnt screen.

After you burn your screen, you use the foam color block to separate areas on your image that you want to come out in different colors. The foam acts as a barrier for the ink so that it doesn't spread into the different-colored areas of your image.

Here you can see how I blocked my burn screen to ensure that those areas would stay only one color.

This is a really bad picture (sorry), but I was trying to show you how I inked the screen, then closed the plastic film flap to squish down over top of the ink I just put on the screen. See if you can figure out that that's what is actually in this picture! :)

After you ink your screen, you load it back into the Gocco machine (lamp removed), and place your paper that you want to print on the sticky pad (where you put your original image before.) You fold the arm to the machine down over top of your paper, lift the arm, and MIRACULOUSLY, you see your image printed in the colors you inked on your screen! 

Here is what my image looked like after I lifted the arm of the machine. You can see the smooshed globs of ink in the screen on the arm of the Gocco machine. I was so scared because I was certain the whole thing wouldn't work and I would just have globs of ink printed onto my paper. But It totally worked! And it really amazed me.

With a well-inked screen, you can print up to 50 times using the same inked screen you originally burnt. I used the drying racks after this image was taken. Additionally, once you are finished printing your image, you can clean your screen and save it to be used again at another time. You cannot, however, burn a new image onto the same screen you used. Once you burn a screen, it's burnt for good.

If you're interested in purchasing this Gocco card print, visit my etsy store!