Continuing on my theme of typographic holiday greetings, here's this year's Gocco printed card :) I made them the day I failed my driving test, so I was desperately trying to cheer myself up...
Hope those of you who actually got a copy, liked them ... and to everyone else (especially all those coming recently from pikaland.com and neo2.es), HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Here's me printing them. Hope those of you that got them like them, and a very Happy Christmas and a Joyous 2008 to all!
Woohoo! I used my Gocco set for the first time today!!! I've been meaning to make some Christmas/New Years cards for AGES, but now that I've realised how close the postal deadline is, I finally got my act together and did it. I think I've been avoiding it as I was worried about using my Gocco and making mistakes and wasting screens and bulbs - they're not the cheapest things in the world! Fortunately that trip to see Xtina back in August was really helpful. I went through all the photos I'd taken that day and the notes I'd made and that made my first excursion into Gocco-land nowhere near as daunting as it could have been.
I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out too - you can just about see in the photo what they look like - I've had to obscure them as I don't want to spoil the surprise ;)
I still want to do a bit more to them and I'll post some finished cards at Christmas - so you'll just have to wait till then (or some of you lucky ones will be getting one in the post)!
On the left is the lovely lovely artist Christina Lamb. Yesterday I spent a whole long wonderful day learning all the tips and tricks to using the gorgeous little Japanese screenprinting machine/kit known as "Print Gocco".
I came across Gocco about a year ago whilst looking up home screenprinting kits. I'd done a whole year of screenprinting classes and absolutely loved them, but after moving to our current place couldn't get to the classes easily anymore. So I started looking for something I could set up at home. In my search I came across this site and completely fell in love with the kit. After lusting after a set for a LONG time (they're not easy to get hold of), I finally treated myself to a second hand one I found on Ebay as a present to myself for getting on the UWE illustration course. It took two months to arrive, but I finally got it in July.
As the consumables for the kit are quite pricey, I didn't want to start experimenting without knowing what I was doing first. I started reading through the Gocco Flickr group, and the Gocco Yahoo forum - there I found Christina (or Xtina as she is otherwise known). She seemed like quite an active Gocco-er, AND she was based in London - so I e-mailed her to see if she'd show me how to use the kit; and she agreed!
So thats how I spent my Thursday, playing with Xtina's Gocco sets, learning LOTS, and also getting to know a really lovely person at the same time. I took LOADS of photos as reference, and now have to sit down and type up my notes. As it turns out, Xtina is as anal about boxing, labeling, and organising things as I am - so nice to come across an artist after my own heart :) I wish though I had taken a better photo of her doing her stuff, but you'll just have to be happy with this one.
My Gocco set is in amongst the packing boxes that are piling up in anticipation of our move to Bristol - so I don't think I'm going to end up using it just yet - but in the meantime have a look at the lovely stuff people are doing with this kit on flickr, and Xtina's beautiful Gocco prints.
* In other news, its 3 weeks till Sunshine and I move to Bristol; and this is my 100th post! HappyMithi :)
