The Litabug Phlog

Some of you have wondered what this “Gocco” thing is all about. So… the last time I used my Gocco for a project, I took photos along the way so you can see how it works! Print Gocco is basically a children’s toy in Japan. It’s an easy, small-scale silkscreen printer. You might wonder why someone would bother silkscreening paper products instead of using an electronic printer, especially when the Gocco involves more work. The three most compelling reasons for me are that 1) silkscreening is an art, 2) silk-screening can be done with opaque inks, allowing light-on-dark printing that is impossible with electronic printers (unless you flood-coat, which just doesn’t look as lovely), and 3) You can silkscreen on all sorts of things that couldn’t go through a printer (tiny pre-cut cards, metal, wood, etc.). Here’s a quick summary of the process.

Each color is done on a separate screen. In this case, I printed white, then chocolate. You print the images for each layer in black, then photocopy them in as high a contrast as possible. It’s important that you burn your screen from a photocopy, since it’s the carbon in the toner that burns the holes into the screen. It doesn’t matter that the photocopy is black and white; once the screen is burned, you can use whatever ink color you choose to print with. Lay the images onto the printer (usually with a piece of paper underneath marked with alignment guides), insert the blank screen and flash bulbs, and press. when the flash bulbs go off, the carbon in the photocopy burns tiny holes into the screen exactly where the images are.

Once the screen is burned, remove it, lift up the plastic backing, and load the ink onto the back of the screen. Since the ink will only squeeze through where the holes have been burned, it’s fine to goop on as much as you need. The more you put on, the more prints you’ll get. If you notice your prints getting faint, you can also stop and re-ink later. Then, reinsert the screen, lay down your paper stock (lining it up if necessary) and press again! This time, the ink will squeeze through and onto your paper in the exact pattern of your design. You may want to do your first couple of presses on scrap paper, since it sometimes takes the ink a minute to get going. As you make your prints, lay them out to dry on a large table (or a drying rack if you’re really professional).

If you’re doing a two-color print, allow the first layer to dry overnight before printing again, then do all the steps above with the new layer/color! When doing two layers, it’s especially important to use guides to line everything up during the screen-burning and printing processes.

So… that’s Gocco!