hello hello (and a giveaway)

Well, I would like to pretend that I hadn't just walked away from my blog for the last 4 months (or so) but... yes, I had. Its funny, since beginning to write in 2007 so many life-changing things have happened, and through all of them I've felt I was able to keep writing. But these last months have been such an effort that I was feeling pretty protective. I'm writing now in hopes that, truly, those times are passed.

Otherwise, yes, all the while I've been printing-printing-printing for the day I returned to this sweet blog home. So let's begin...

Visitors to my Etsy shop will notice some "summer" designs have come and gone, while the "winter" designs (dragons, snowflakes, and scarves I love so much) are returning. I still have ouou's Halloween printed card, too, in the shop until Thanksgiving. I'll be breaking some sets into collections in order to still offer the summery designs, these will be in the Mixed Set section this week.

There is also a new Gocco card in town, one in the spirit of Halloween. I've decided to hand-paint these little monsters (who are martians? or sea creatures? or bogeymen?) for a snappy two-tone effect. The reason they're so late to the shop... what do I name this critter? So, on my first post back after a long absence its high time for a BLOG GIVEAWAY!

Please, help me out on a name for this latest Gocco silkscreen card. Leave your suggestions in comments... (nothing outrageous, please)... I can't wait to read them :D The contest is open until next Wednesday, October 28th 9 p.m. est.

Let my readers be forewarned: the judging process will be *subjective*- the one I like the most will become his title. <3 The winner, of course, will get a free set of these cards or a 2 pack of any card in my shop.

Its good to be back. :)

update

Sky layer from Larger than the Sky Gocco print

In taking a moment to pull together new Gocco printed items that need photographs, I realized I've been something of a Gocco whirlwind over here. Should I even bother anymore saying "Well, I live in Portland, so... you know... it rains a lot." golly its hard to find the right day (hour?) to take pictures. Not that I'm complaining- this place has amazing weather. I'm still in the production stage on many of these, back-printing or whatever assembly I've got to finish, but I feel pretty accomplished for the couple of print runs around our home busyness.

One, Two, Three new watercolor aceos now in!

One, Two and Three are in the shop as of tonight. I'm finally willing to admit that my computer is having problems with Etsy - another reason I'm freeing up time from being there is I can't seem to use it. Don't worry, I'm still fulfilling orders and being a good shop keep, lucky for us we have 2 computers in the house. For Etsy, I'm using my sister's computer throughout the day, and brought in these three (finally!) tonight after everybody went to bed. I'm feeling ambivalent about the roadblock since I'm finding I had once spent a *lot* of time on Etsy, time spent mostly...? I hear that's pretty common.
Without a clear channel to it now I find I'm much more focused there when I log in from C's laptop.
Funny, life.

I do feel relieved to bring in new aceo's, though, as they've been finished and waiting patiently for about a month. I've got another Robot themed card (related, but not the same as Land of Cupcakes) that has also been waiting on my desk since April- I'll be bringing that one in toward the end of the week. Otherwise, get your Gocco boots on kiddies cause I've been elbow-deep in printing ink and will be bringing you news as often as the aperture lets in any light at all. Portland, Portland- time for the sun to shine again! Pretty please?

Land of Cupcakes, make room for more Robots.

Sofie, Shine and Steam(er)!

Steamer

Alright! What a weekend. I'm proud to announce several changes in the shop, as well as some new faces! Because I am irresistibly drawn to warm drinks and scarves as subject matter, I thought it was high time I bring in Steamer, a lovely friend drinking a warm cuppa. Classic ouou drawing, but without the Dragon. :)

Sofie and the Bird

I've brought back one of my personal favorites from last year, Sofie, in her printed version. I have the same design in silkscreen Gocco version, but these (along with the green envelopes I've got right now) printed cards are such a necessary piece of Spring in my shop.

Shine

And finally, also new today is Shine~ this wonderfully celebratory new card. I've begun announcing new designs on Flickr a few days before they appear in my shop. For me, this is great because I'm not able to blog every day, so check it out! There you can see the other projects I'm working on, and notes from my sketchbook too.

But there are a few more changes this week at ouou. I've consolidated several winter card designs into Mixed Sets here. So, cards like Smarty and Red Dragon Drinks Tea are now only listed as parts of Mixed Sets throughout the spring and summer. All card designs are available upon request, however, so no worries if mid-June you really need a set of bundly, cocoa drinking Dragons or something.



Lastly, I've brought back the Monkey products, in all his wiley forms. I'm planning a blog post about Gocco later in the week, so for now you can take a look at tags and the Moleskine selection in the Gocco Silkscreen section.

everything I know about Gocco

Today I'm going to bring you a rather long post, the wonderful gritty details of our Gocco experience. When I say "our", the Gocco machine actually belongs to my older sister, Celeste, who bought the machine last year at this time to spice up Bamboo Village Press, her Etsy shop, with printed paper goods. Since opening my own shop on Etsy the following November, I've gotten so much guidance from my wonderful sister that I forget sometimes there are people out there maneuvering the craft world or Etsy on their own.

So, here is any tips and sites from our experience that have come in very handy while thinking about setting off on a Gocco adventure! ***This is also my first attempt to edit my own HTML so that links open in a new window. If something doesn't work, let me know and I'll try to fix it/ get you the link. :)

The best site on the web for an introduction to Gocco is probably Save Gocco. This will give you the whole background and history behind the machine, and the campaign to keep RISO from taking them off the market. What they are are essentially silkscreen kits designed to fit in your home and be cleaner/ easier to use than using the press & squeegee method. I've done some home silk screening (wooden frame and tubs of ink) as well as printmaking in college and other than the questionably toxic bulbs that Gocco requires to create the screen image for you, I agree it is much cleaner/ easier.

(However, if you can help me to get my house to look like this... I would be really very grateful!)

The process is simple: you start with an image you want to use for your print and transfer this image (either using a Micron Pigma, carbon pen, or photocopy) to sized paper sheets Gocco provides you. This rests on the bottom of the machine. The upper most part of the frame has your screen and a removable bulb case that, when pressed down (as though you were making a stamp) will activate the bulbs and transfer the darks of your drawn image to the screen. Now you no longer need the paper drawing. Once you have made your screen you remove the bulb case, lay ink down over the dark transfered lines of your screen, and proceed to stamp away!

• One of the things I really love about this particular way of printing is that your transfered image is not backwards. It took some getting used to, since I was used to printmaking, but really it is so easy not to have to plan in reverse!

• What I've noticed a lot of fascinating and design savvy Gocco users will do is plot out their 2 or 3 color designs on a computer first. This way it is much easier to plot out how to proceed if your end image will have more than one color.

Our Gocco machine is a pg6. The pg6 is the largest Gocco model and my sister got this one in order to easier print on fabric. The pg6 measures 15.7"x 18.1" (our microwave, for example, is smaller) but it is pretty lightweight and the screens themselves can print an image almost as big as a normal 8 x 10 sheet of paper.

After printing with the pg6 for the last 6 months, I am eager to try out the smaller stamp Gocco, like this pg5. Why? well, the base of our printer is designed to move with the pressure you apply. This is a good thing considering you are smooshing ink through a screen, but can be tricky around the edges of such a large area if you have many images on one screen. Doing my own research about my favorite Gocco artists (mostly from Etsy, but Flickr is wonderful for Gocco info) I find that many people are using the smaller stamp models.

Now, lastly, let's be really honest about how expensive these little guys are. Our pg6 came from one of my favorite stationary suppliers, Paper Source. I fully trust them and their customer service is great, but they are on the high end of craft suppliers. Along with another set of supplies, bulbs, and shipping, the entire cost was almost $500.00. This does not include the cost of what you will be printing on. When I first started printing on paper, I would say about 1/3 attempts turned out to be mis-prints or not good enough for sale.

Also, despite the size of our printer, I have to date not successfully printed on fabric. Celeste has done some beautiful images which leads me to believe it is easier with bolder, thicker designs if you are going to tackle fabric (see above). But, she had a couple of hiccups with these cloth bound journals, so you have to factor in your supplies as well as whether your supplies work against you while considering the long-term costs.

If you still want to get a Gocco, my suggestion would be to practice, practice, practice with your basic inks and one color printing before expanding. Our secret weapon for supplies is Welsh Products, who seem to be a small company (you have to email your customer order to them) and are really friendly, helpful, reasonably priced. Shipping takes about a week, slower than most, but if you plan ahead its a company worth supporting. Lastly, there are constant discussions about Gocco in forums, both on Etsy and Flickr. Countless groups on both these communities, as well as IndiePublic, MySpace, Facebook, and even Yahoo are fantastic resources when you jump in!

I'll do my best to answer any other questions as they come up, but otherwise the very best of luck to all of you:

LOVE YOUR GOCCO!