Print Gocco

Gocco (pronounced Go-Ko) is a type of Japanese screenprinting that was originally invented as a children's toy. The gocco machine is small and makes postcard sized prints on paper, cloth, and even food. While the prints can't get much bigger than 4x6 inches, you can make prints with the gocco screen an endless amount of times. The gocco machine looks like this:

The machine creates a print template out of any image by burning the image into a small mesh screen using a flashbulb, similar to what was used in old camera flashes. You simply make a carbon copy of the image you want to print using a standard copier, and load the image into a chamber on the gocco machine that contains two new flashbulbs. The copied image rests against the screen, and when the bulbs flash, the carbon is burned onto the screen, making pinprick holes everywhere the carbon was touching.

After the print screen is made, gooey, oil-based ink is applied to the back, and using the gocco press, is pushed through the tiny holes onto paper, fabric, or whatever material you want, creating a final print. The process is very simple and makes very detailed prints over and over. Here are some sample prints done by people in the gocco workshop:

The last one with the words "Fly By" was designed by me. I drew the cockatiel image and created my own font using the paintbrush tool in Illustrator. The cockatiel is my little baby girl Penny :)