Streamlined Gocco Tutorial (for my peeps)

Here is the streamlined tutorial version for people like my mom and knitting circle gals, who I don't want to bore to tears looking though 55 photos on my "extensive" tutorial.

1. Put photocopied drawings on the pad. Insert the master screen which is the cardboard frame with silkscreen inside.



2. Place your lightbulbs into the mirrored housing and place them on top of the print gocco machine.



3. See how the lamp housing is inverted on the machine so that the lights are aiming directly to the master screen beneath it? When you press down on the machine, it sends a current from the batteries to the bulbs thus bursting them and creating enough heat to burn the screen. The screen is treated with an emulsion that activates and burns in areas where carbon and the heat from the lights interact. It does flash, but nothing dangerous. (I swear, Ma!)



4. After you wait for the bulbs to cool, you can remove them from the mirrored housing unit. See how they crack and pop after they're used up?



5. The carbon on the image (black areas) sticks onto the screen where it has burned. You can see a ghost image on the screen. These areas where it was burned means that there is are hundreds of tiny holes for the ink to come through and print on your paper. The other areas are not burned, so no ink will go through.



6. Ink is applied on the screen for the various colors you want to use. I applied a foamy sticker around the pools of color, to keep them from running into each other into a globby mess. The plastic layer goes over the ink, so that it doesn't make a mess.



7. See, gocco is kind of a combination of silkscreen and rubber stamping. You're burning a screen like in silkscreen, but you are not inking and dragging a brayer across the screen to make a print each time. Instead, you're inking enough for multiple prints, and using pressure to make the ink press against the plastic sheet and glass, flatten out and flow through your image. (Kind of like a rubber stamp).



8. After you press down the top of the machine, lift it up and you'll have a print on your paper! Then you can run around the house looking for empty surfaces to print on, as it's that addicting.



9. When you're done printing, hang them or lay them flat to dry.



10. You're done! Clean up and treat yourself to some ice cream with sprinkles.

P.S. I really do want to have a gocco party soon, for real life demonstrations, it's just been a busy month of weddings, traveling and miscellaneous riff-raff.