Thursday, January 15, 2009

gocco: trouble shooting

Grrr....I am having troubles with the gocco. For some reason the whole image doesn't burn completely onto the screen. So for instance with my thank yous, my lines of dots will have gaps in them or the script 'thank you' faintly burns onto the screen so when you print with the ink it barely shows up - if at all.

Can anyone help me....please....I need to get my invitations made pronto!

I'm using photocopies, so the carbon is present. I'm using brand new/never-been-open screens, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've tried making my thank you card 3 times, so that's 3 screens and 6 bulbs. I can't be wasting supplies like this (since they're so hard to come by anyways).

[One of those attempts was design 1, with the large orange circular thank you. This didn't fair well since the text is rather thin. The ink kind of took over so once printed you couldn't read it that well. Are there any tips for printing large areas of ink?]

Please help me.....


Thanks!
-desperate gocco novice

4 comments:

emily said...

hey logan! flickr has a HUGE gocco group and you post questions and these people know anything and everything about gocco.

logan said...

Thanks Emily! I just posted there, so we'll see if I can get any help.

kristina said...

Hi Logan!

First, cute blog! and great projects. you guys seem way ahead on the little handmade touches!

kay, Gocco.

FIrst the questions you asked on my blog:

I don't save my screens. but that's often because they are for a specific event that i will never use again (like the 2009 new years card). But it's also because i don't know how to clean them. and if you don't keep them wrapped and moist (i've done this for a week in the middle of printing before) they dry out and and become unusable. However, i do suspect that there is some way to clean them. i'm just not in the loop. If you find out a way, let me know!

Burning the screen twice- hmmm. well, i suppose you could... but not if there was already paint on it. and you'd have to be careful... is there a specific reason you wouldn't just burn the whole design at once?

NOW, onto you other questions-

It's possible that your design is too close to the edges of the stage? maybe it's not burning evenly because it's not getting even light? not sure if that makes sense. my gocco is a double size one so i usually center a smaller design. meaning i never deal with designs near the edges.

have you tried using the blue filter sheet when you burn your screens? it's supposed to ensure a crisper burn or something. i always use it just to be safe.

As for the large areas of ink, i haven't figured out a good way to handle that. the only advice i can give is to make your text inside the bubble a little thicker to compensate.

The thing about gocco is it's not perfect. like there will be little pieces missing here and there (though the screen should definitely burn evenly). I've had so many gocco debacles i can't even begin to list them all here. but you'll get the hang of it!

good luck with anything and definitely feel free to email me if you have anymore questions.

kristina said...

sorry that was so long! i didn't see an email in your profile.

xo