Thursday, July 10, 2008

What would you do with your last gocco supplies?

That's the Gocco Question — should I dole them out slowly and thoughtfully, spreading them out over projects that are 'gocco-worthy' (Roberta's phrase), or should I have a Gocco Blowout and spend every last drop of my supplies on one final project, literally the Gocco Project to End All Gocco Projects?

Right now, I'm leaning towards the Blowout. And I even have a project idea.

I've always wanted to illustrate my own version of the Thousand and One Nights, but even in that, I have another quandary. Should I do the traditional Nights, or should I do something more relevant, like 1001 tales from Iraq vets? (The number would be approximate, like the traditional Nights.)

Although, in the end, the choice might be dictated by something else — I want to use the last of my gocco supplies to do what it does best, and that means illustrations rather than text. This does not preclude my doing the illustrations with the gocco, and the text in letterpress. I do have that letterpress in the garage which I'll finally get serious about using now, maybe. That's if Andrew doesn't suddenly want it back. That will be my luck, run out of gocco supplies at the same time that Andrew settles down and wants his press back. Then I guess I'll just make one of a kind books after that. Like manuscripts. That would be fun too.

But back to the Gocco Question. Oh, what to do?

In the mean time, I finished all the copies of the books going to my Rock Star senior, and I'll deliver them tomorrow. This means 13 more books and I'll be finished with my FIRST book for this project. And I need to get FOUR books done before November...

7 comments:

gl. said...

i'm a hoarder: ill do very small things until i run out. but it's hard to want to teach gocco if nobody will be able to do anything about it...

fingerstothebone said...

I know, I was thinking about that too.

Unknown said...

Hi there! My name is Violet Craft and I'll be taking your Advanced Gocco class at the end of the month. I know, I know - seems like bad timing right? I'm wondering why the IPRC doesn't invest in a RISO screenfax and screen rolls to be able to continue flashing screens without the traditional bulbs and masters? It seems so incredibly sad that there are going to be so many Gocco printers out there without supplies to support them. Probably a topic for discussion in class :) I just ran across your blog/website by doing some Gocco information searches and recognized you from Pudding and class and wanted to say hello. Hello!

fingerstothebone said...

Hello, Kung Fu Bambini (I love that!),

My understanding is that screenfaxes can't expose the 200 count hi-mesh screens; they only work for the lower resolution screens, which isn't any good for printing text on paper. So I'm not surprised that IPRC didn't get a screenfax. I have a sp-275 which does expose the 200 hi-mesh screens, but the sp-275 is REALLY hard to find.

Looking forward to seeing you in class. Thanks for dropping by!

gl. said...

hey, violet! i think you took my basic gocco at the iprc (or at least, i remember kung fu bambini!). i'm so glad you're taking shu-ju's class!

shu-ju, this reminds me of an idea i had: before the iprc schedules the last gocco class, we should have a big printing blowout! you, me, & gillian could take shifts and have a big party at the iprc where people prints as much as they can with the last of iprc's supplies. :)

fingerstothebone said...

Wait a minute, I thought you were The Hoarder and want to slowly use up supplies for gocco-worthy projects?! On the other hand, *I* am the blowout type, so sounds good to me!

gl. said...

ah, but it's the IPRC's supplies, not mine. hee! just kidding. but i figure at some point they're going to realize they won't be able to teach a class anymore, and instead of letting it languish or dwindle, they could make it into one last celebration/event and use them up all at once! plus, i wouldn't mind a "farewell, gocco!" party.