RISO Print Gocco

Recently I was looking for some custom journals for a gift on etsy, which is a fabulous website for handmade and vintage items. I came across some really fun moleskine journals, see these examples above. One of the best things about etsy is that usually they write about there process of creating items and a lot of the journals I was looking were made using Print Gocco. I had never heard of it before so I did a bit of research. If you click on the link it will tell you everything you need to know, but here is an excerpt of the basics. 

Screen printing is versatile medium in which you can create anything from a simple t-shirt to a complex, multi-layered fine art print. Screen printing is easy, but can take up an inconvenient amount of space. So with the Print Gocco, you can screen print at home using only a small machine. It's made only by a single company, Japan's RISO, and uses proprietary supplies so you need to think about shipping costs. It's compact enough to use in even a very small apartment, so it's a great solution for people with limited space... as long as you don't mind that it makes small prints. 

How does it work? Print Gocco is a small version of a few elements commonly used in screen printing: the hinge clamps that hold your screen and the exposure unit that frequent printers use to create their screens. The screens themselves have several layers, one solid. The ink goes between the layers, and pressure is applied, causing the ink to squeeze out and onto your paper.

Over the last few years, Print Gocco has become one of the most talked-about tool for artists and crafters and I can see why, because the Print Gocco allows you to screen print many mediums and enables the artist to make quality prints themselves. You can print on cloth, make your own customized cards and journals and many more uses.

There are a couple different types of machines that Riso sells, depending on the print size that you want and the quality of the machine. I found some listed on ebay and the smallest models which are the P5 (which is orange) and the B6 (which is light blue) seem to range from about $78 for a used P5 model to over $200 for a brand new B6. Another model, the PG10 or PG11, make the same size print but are a little more durable and have some added features that make multi color print much easier. These models usually sell for $169 and up. The largest model is the B5 and has a much larger printing area, but usually costs a lot more in shipping. I found one of ebay for $249, with $130 in added shipping costs.

All in all, buying a print gocco machine is a bit of an investment but can yield some really cool results. If you are in to print making at all and like to sell your wares, I'm sure you could make your money back in no time. I think it would be a really fun thing to get into, but for me I am going to wait a bit to actually get a machine. 

I sent in some custom designs to be made into journals by a guy on esty so I am really excited to see the final products when they are done. I'll post the results here so you can see how they turn out.