http://www.dickblick.com/zz449/38/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=1723

I'm interested in using it on cloth.

Lots of Q's:

Anyone have one of these? Are they fairly easy to use? How long does it take to make a screen? Do you need to do it in a dark room (I am a bit confused about the process of screen printing)?

They sound fabulous. I am drooling.

*steph

edited for one more Q

I was eyeing this at Pearl Paint the other day...
I wanted to use it for fabric too...I'm just worried the screens are too fine. I hope someone answers your post...now I'm dying to have one too!

PS- The nice thing about these are the screens are so slim (and cheap). Once you make one you like, you can keep it. With the standard wood-frame silk screens...you end up with so much space and money invested...

tha site yu posted has this http://www.dickblick.com/zz449/34/products.asp?param=0&ig_id=1785 its the right ink you need for cloth...

actually, you can't really save the screens after you've used them. it's not like trad silkscreening, where you can rinse out the ink. you can put the used screen, ink and all, in a baggie and try to use it later as long as the ink doesn't dry out. or, you can try to use the gocco-specific ink cleaner to clean the screen, but my experience with this has been very frustrating. (the cleaner is sort of greasy, and i couldn't get the ink to behave properly after using it.)

print gocco is really fun, but _expensive_ due to the single-use screens and bulbs. it is faster and sometimes easier than trad silkscreen for a small project.

also, to use that fabric stamping kit you still need the main printer to make the screens... or you can cut smaller pieces of fabric and lay them in the main printer (as if you were making cards) to make patches.

jordana

I have one, although I have to admit I haven't used it yet. A teacher of mine was really into gocco printing and she did some demos with one. The screens are made almost instantly and you don't need a darkroom. I remember that it was best to use images that were more like line drawings rather than ones that had lots of middle-grays. Images in those Dover clip art books worked well. Also, when exposing the screen, it was important to use an image printed from a laser printer rather than an ink jet printer (something to do with the toner). Now I want to give mine a go! Good luck :-)

i can't wait for the answers ive been eyeing it off and on for a year now...some of the printers on one of my yahoo groups said they loved it...

I have one of these but I haven't had a chance to use it yet! I saw a demo of it the other day at Paper Source and it looks so darn cool.

Apparantly to do fabric you can buy this extra free-form piece that you slide the screen into and then stamp the design onto your t-shirt or whatever. Then you iron from the back to seal the ink into the fabric. It does say that when you wash the item you need to handwash it to help prevent fading.

I'd love to hear from anyone who has used theirs!

i have one, love it, it is extremely easy to use, although the supplies can be a little expensive.

to use it, you need an orginal with carbon. according to gocco, you can use #2 pencils, black crayons (haven't tried that one yet), special markers from gocco (they work GREAT), or laser prints from a printer or copier. i have an HP inkjet that also works, because their ink has carbon in it, but i do not know if other inkjet printers work.

you take the original, put it in the bottom of the gocco, put a screen in, put special gocoo flash bulbs (i have tried others, but you really need to use theirs) in the housing, and press closed. viola. screen is done. doesn't need to be in the dark or anything.

to make a print, you put ink on the screen, put the screen back in the gocco printer and press like a stamp. this is WAY easier than you expect it to be. took me a couple of times of over-inking the screen before i got the hang of it.

i have used my gocco on paper, card stock, t-shirts, canvas bags, and even blank topped CDs. you can pretty much print on anything. they also sell a cloth stamp that you stick the screen onto for printing on things too big to put in the little gocco stamper. this goes for $40 i think, but i found one on clearance last year for $10. it is well worth buying if you want to do t-shirts and stuff.

now that i have my gocco, i hate silk-screening...its just so much work. with the gocco you can do exrtremely fine lines with no problems. you can also do multiple colors on the same screen as long as they are more than 1/4 inch apart and you put this inkblocking stuff between the colors. you can reuse the screen for a long time as long as you clean it properly after you finish.

here is a t-shirt i did>http://www.auroraseven.com/bands/aaa/tshirt.htm

a bag:>http://www.auroraseven.com/images/aaabag.gif

and this cd cover:>http://www.auroraseven.com/bands/aaa/thisissour.htm

hope i answered some of your questions!

-alison

alisona7, that bag is really lovely.

thanks...i'd love to take the credit but the drawings are done by someone else, i just did the printing.


here's a little more info about the artwork:>http://www.auroraseven.com/bands/aaa/index.htm

-alison

still cool :)

I just got a Print Gocco at work and am a little intimidated by the number of consumables. Can I ask what happened when you tried to use non-Gocco flashbulbs?

And do you order the supplies online? I bought the Gocco locally, but the salespeople at the art store had to special order it, and they don't seem to know much about it. I am sort of dreading the thought of asking them to constantly order flashbulbs and special ink and screens.

I tried 2 different kinds of non-Gocco bulbs, and neither worked very well. Clear flash bulbs picked up very little of the original. Blue flash bulbs picked up more, but still not the entire image. I'm not sure if it has to do with the yellow color of the Gocco bulbs or perhaps they just burn hotter?

As for inks, you can use other ones as long as it has the same consistancy (Gocco ink is VERY thick). I used silk screen ink, but it was too thin and spread out all over the place. Another time I used block printing ink, and that was fine. The ink is usually around $2 (every time I have bought it anyway) and you use so little each time, that I try to only use the real Gocco ink.

I have bought supplies on-line from Dick Blick and AV Graphics. Also, I got some supplies off eBay.

Cost is the only problem I have with my Gocco. Sometimes I just can't afford to use it. In my experience, it averages out to cost about $5 every time I want to make a screen. When I am really broke I spend tons of time planning out how to make the most of a screen...

Wow! Thanks everyone! What good responses. I'm going to give it a shot!

alisona7 -- Your stuff looks beautiful & thanks for such a detailed reply.

*steph

i believe to set the screens you need to use uv rays. so if you can get a lightbulb used for tanning, or those blacklight bulbs that are ACTUAL blacklight (not the purple looking ones) bulbs, those will work as well. i think they cast a blueish glow.. but they dont shine black or anything.
hope that helps in your lightbulb searches
an you use a photocopier or laser printer because of the 'density' of the ink. when your setting it, your ink has to be dense enough that the uv rays dont get thro. reg printers inks are different. and also, the laser ones kind of heat the ink? so its.. er.. more smoother lines? than.. the dot dot dot action of a reg printer.
hahaha
i hope that made sense..

im planning on getting a real screenprinting setup going soon. i have price quote an everything and im excited ! >.<!