Do you like these? I bet you do! They are lovely, aren't they?! Inspired by Benign Objects, we printed Hankies For The Heartbroken and Hayfeverish! You can do it too!
Don't be put off by the long tutorial - we've tried to explain every little thing - and troubleshoot too. It's really VERY easy to do! Go on!
(More about Gocco here)
You can use our artwork!
Teary Dearie?
Something To Sneeze At
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(More about Gocco here)
You can use our artwork!
Teary Dearie?
Something To Sneeze At
****************************************************************
Supplies You Will Need For This Project ::
- A Print Gocco Which Fits the B6 Hi-Mesh Screens - we have a B6 Print Gocco Set
- A regular old B6 Hi-Mesh Screen : the same one that you use for printing paper projects with the Gocco - I didn't use a special fabric screen or anything. Please have some extra screens as back up - it's my golden rule with the cantankerous Gocco.
- Gocco Globes x 2 (plus some back up - Globes can be tetchy - always have PLENTY of extra globes - we had a whole box of faulty ones recently)
- Permaset Textile Printing Ink : Black (or a nice bold colour that you like!) : note that it's a bit runnier than the Gocco fabric ink
- New freshly ironed hankies : via eBay, Spotlight or your local discount store (or make some!) - or collect vintage ones and launder them well. You can print SO many hankies. I printed 50. Maybe that's too many for you? Perhaps you could cut up some plain fabric and print that to make into hankies later? Definitely print lots, though!
- A plastic spoon or knife to apply the ink to the screen
- An old ATM card for a squeegee : you could use a proper mini squeegee, though!
- Your Artwork for the Master Copy**
- Scissors
- Blue Filter - that clear blue plasticky sheet that came with your Gocco. *If you don't have one press on - just be sure to photocopy your master on a very light setting (see below). I have made many successful prints without the filter - but it's better WITH the filter, I think.
- Batteries x 2 AA for the Gocco : in case yours have gone flat!
- A couple of old magazines to use as your printing surface and heaps of newspaper to lay your inky hankies on (unlike with paper, the ink will soak right through the fabric of the hankies and ink your table top otherwise!)
- A few old rags or paper towels for wiping stray ink from the screen - Permaset is a bit runny - it will happen!
- A dozen or so sheets of scrap paper
- Some brown paper sandwich bags - you can print these after you've printed the hankies and then stow the finished hankies inside! Clever, huh?!
- Optional : if you have a friend helping you, you could use a clothes horse and pegs to hang your hankies on to dry.
* You must use a photocopy (or a black and white laser printer copy) - the Gocco system relies on the carbon in the photo or B&W laser copy to burn the screen properly. Deskjet or Colour Laser Printers will not work.How To Do It ::
* You should photocopy on a very light setting, in my experience - too much carbon is the enemy! It will make the prints spotty.
* It's important to try not to have large 'solid, coloured in' areas of colour or black in your artwork. They are quite tricky to print consistently. But small 'solid, coloured in' areas will be fine.
*Have a look at the size of the B6 screen. Your artwork should easily fit on the interior mesh part of the screen with some extra space around it. Don't go to close to the edges or you'll probably miss bits of your print. Reduce your artwork to the right size - take the screen with you when you photocopy your artwork to make sure - or cut a template to the size of the interior of the screen.
* Another good tip is to FOLD the original in half once you've made a few copies. That way you won't waste globes trying to burn the (carbonless) original. (I have done that!) DO make at least FIVE copies of your artwork in case of stuff ups!
Place a piece of scrap paper on the rubber pad. Now place your nicely trimmed photocopied master on the rubber pad of the Gocco - it should be trimmed to pretty much the same size as the pad and it should be face up. Nice work. Make sure it's nice and straight.
Place the blue filter that came with your Gocco against the clear 'stage screen' - just like in our photo. If you don't have the blue filter - press on - but be sure to use a light/pale setting on the photocopier when you make your copy.
Now place your White Hi-Mesh Screen over the top of the blue filter. The red arrow should be at the bottom - and it won't fit in if it's not in the correct way, so you can't mess this up! See the arrow in our shot? Do it like that. The plastic-flap side of the screen is then sandwiched away. The mesh side will be the visible side. You should also see the red arrow, as in our photo. Awesome.
So let's do a little stocktake : You have your screen in place. Hidden under the screen is the blue filter (if you have one.) The artwork you photocopied is on the rubber pad with some scrappy paper underneath it. Check? Great. Lower the handle and close it all up. You should see the photocopied artwork peeping through a blue haze. (Like below!)
Now put your globes into the Lamp Housing (above) - make sure they are screwed in nice and firmly - if not they may not flash. Or one will and one won't. Argh. What a waste of a screen. Screw those suckers in nicely.
Put the Lamp Housing into position on top of the B6 Body - match the arrows on each component. Make sure that the Housing is slotted all the way in. ( If you match the arrows you should just be able to gently push the other end of the Housing (the end near the handle) into place. Don't push hard. It'll just slide in.)
Now everything is in place. Get ready to flash! (In a nice way!) It should look like the picture below (minus my hand!)
See how I have one hand on there? Don't do that. I had the camera in the other hand. With TWO HANDS - one on each side of the handle - say a prayer and push down firmly and evenly. Look away as the Lamps will flash very brightly. They will have just burned your screen. The bright light and heat from the lamps/globes will have reacted with the carbon to burn teeny tiny holes in your screen. (We hope.) Excellent. These tiny holes will allow the ink through in the exact right places and onto your hankie (or scrap paper). Gocco magic!
Do not touch those lamps for at least ten minutes. They are VERY hot and a bit toxic too!
(If the lamps don't flash : Check that the lamp housing is locked into place correctly. Check that the batteries are fresh and good and in the right way. If those things are all good, your lamps may be faulty. Try lamps from a different pack. You'll have to go through the whole process again - but be sure to use fresh lamps! If only one lamp flashed : A new screen, new photocopy and new lamps are in order - bugger - back to square one - be sure that your lamps are screwed in properly - use fresh lamps!)
Open the Print Gocco up again. It'll look like the image above, except your scrap paper will still be on the pad (if it's not it doesn't matter). Your photocopy will be stuck onto the screen. It'll be stuck where the image is. This is very good. Later we will peel it off, but not yet. Leave it there. But check with a tiny peek under each edge of the paper that it is stuck on all sides and you can't see the image without peeling (don't peel too much!). It is? Very good work. Screen success. You are ace.
(If the photocopied artwork is flopping about - is only stuck a bit or is not stuck at all - the screen did not burn properly. Did your lamps flash? They did? Perhaps you used the original to try and burn your screen and not the photocopy? Bum. Back to the start with the photocopied artwork this time. Remember we need the carbon)
Take the sucessful screen out. But still leave the artwork stuck to the mesh side. We're done with the B6 now. Unless you want to burn a different screen. Do that if you want to. Otherwise put all this stuff aside, except for the screen. Pack it up. Or just put it under the table and pack up later!
Here are my hankies. They were sticky taped up and rolled up. Annoying. I removed the sticky tape, unrolled them and pressed them nice and flat with a hot iron. You should have done that too. If not, do that now. Make a cup of tea and put on some music too. Nice.If you've pressed all your hankies, get your work surface ready. Clear the decks. Have plenty of newspaper covered table tops and chairs and floor to place your inky, wet hankies on. Get out your magazine and open it up and push it down at the spine until it's nice and flat. Place your first pressed hankie on the clean magazine page. You will print it right there. (Then you will remove the printed hanky. And turn the page to get a fresh printing surface. If you print on the same spot the soaked through ink will mess up your next (fresh) hankie. So the magazine method is good. Print, turn, print, turn. Etc. Make sense? It will when you start printing, I promise.)
Have your pile of scrap paper ready on your work surface too. Just 5 or so pieces that you can do your first 4 or 5 prints on. Then you can start on the hankies. (The result on fabric will be different, though, so don't worry if the paper prints are a bit seepy at first.)
Right. Let's go. We're all prepared. Here is our burnt screen again. Paper artwork is still stuck on the meshy side. Plastic-covered side is facing up. Carefully tear off this clear plastic overlay on the screen. Don't be scared. Just tear it off. We don't need the plastic for this method of Squeegee-Gocco Printing. (You do need to use it for other methods of Gocco Printing, though.)
We are going to apply the ink now. Use a knife or a small spoon. Put a decent sized glob of Permaset Textile Printing Ink right onto the screen. It's going on to the side you just tore the plastic from. ( It's not going on the side where your artwork is still stuck. Got it? Have a look at the picture below.)
Use your knife or spoon to smooth the ink out a bit. You just need to kind of cover the area where your illustration/text is. You can see where your image is through the mesh, because we left the artwork on there. (It's also good to leave the artwork on there because it stops the ink seeping through onto the table.) You don't need to be too precise when smoothing the ink as we're going to use the squeegee to spread the ink out evenly in a second.
Please ignore the fact that I didn't have the plastic torn off in the above image!!!
I did tear it off in a minute!
I did tear it off in a minute!
Okay. Is your hankie ready? Is it ironed and sitting atop your old, open magazine waiting to be printed? Cool! Finally we can peel the photocopied artwork off the back of the screen. It might take a bit of gentle tugging. Be sure no lumps of paper have stuck to that side of the screen. If they have pick them off and then wash your hands. Be careful not to get ink everywhere. Don't put the screen down on the table top unless you have newspaper underneath.
Let's do a test run. With Gocco the first few prints are usually crappy (a bit like the first few pancakes, ya know?!) Grab your scrap paper and plonk the screen onto it, inky side down. Use your squeegee/card to smooth the ink over the part of the screen that has your design on it. Then pull the squeegee/card back and forth a couple of times (kind of scrape it, yeah?). Lift the screen quickly, with confidence and survey the first print on paper. Print a few more until you get the hang of it and it seems like you are getting a nice even print. Then move on to the hankies when you are happy.
If you need to stop for a few minutes : Gingerly pop your screen into a plastic bag and tie it closed. Try not to smear the ink all over the screen. It needs to just stay on that one side. Not on the edges. If it gets on the edges clean it off again with a rag or tissue before you start to print again. Sometimes a screen will last overnight like this - but perhaps put it in a big zip lock bag. I have done this and it worked fine the next day. It just got a little bit messier. Be aware that it won't always work though! Don't be mad if your screen dries up. But mine didn't!
Print Your Hankies : Once you are happy with your scrap paper prints you can print your hankies! Exactly the same deal as with the practice scrap paper. Place the screen into the centre of the hankie. Smooth the ink over and then pull it back and forth 2 or 3 times with your squeegee or expired card. Be sure not to miss the edges. Pull the screen off deftly and quickly & grab the hankie super quickly too. Otherwise the excess ink that has seeped through the hankie onto the magazine page might smudge the print. Or it might get onto other parts of the hankie. Not a disaster, but maybe not what you are going for. I'm sure you'll only stuff up a couple before you get the hang of it. That's fine. I stuffed up three. Lay the printed hankie onto clean newspaper. Turn the inky page of the magazine over. It's time for a fresh, new, clean page to print on! Repeat the process with a fresh hankie!If the prints start to fade - add a wee bit more ink. Slowly does it, though.
If the prints are a bit patchy - be sure to really push the ink down into those areas with the card.
Be sure you smooth the ink out with each print before you pull it back and forth.
If the prints are too wet and inky - scoop some ink off the screen (you may have applied too much) and run a few more prints on scrap paper until the screen is less inky.
Don't let the inky bits of the drying hankies touch each other, will you?
At this stage I put the screen in a plastic bag for half an hour and let the hankies dry. Don't move the hankies until they are dry. Okey doke?
Why Not Print Some Extra Stuff?:
I also printed some paper bags using the exact same method. You can get SO many prints out of a screen and all that ink, it seemed a good idea to print something else while the mess was made. Probably not recommended for paper, but the Permaset Textile Ink worked fine on these paper bags. I wouldn't recommend it for serious papery Gocco projects, though. But it's cool to use up the excess for something cute. Remember that the ink won't soak through the paper bags in the same way as the filmy fabric. (You don't need to use the magazine-print-surface technique). You could print other paper stuff too. Up to you!
Don't Forget To Heat-Set Your Hankies : once the hankies are nice and dry, press each one carefully with a hot iron to set the ink. Be careful not to burn them - keep the iron moving. Permaset recommends 2 minutes of heat to set them properly. Then the ink will last as long as the hanky - and through a zillion washes, or so!
Other Notes For Gocco Lovers ::
We tried using the Gocco Fabric Stamp for this project, but we found the print quality was really crappy and inconsistent.
We also used the Gocco Fabric Ink on a trial of this project - it wasn't as good as the Permaset Textile Ink - it wasn't as bold. Permaset is also much cheaper.
We tried placing the hankie on the rubber pad with some scrap under it - the screen slotted in where it should be - and printing as for paper - the prints were very saturated and hard to remove without excess seeping up. But you could try that if you have a helper to whisk the hanky out quickly!
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