The tiny proportions of the now defunct Gocco compared to the gargantuan A3 sheet of Riso!
Some time ago, me and my delightfully darling wife Twinkle bought a Gocco - a miniature home printing kit which is almost a cross between letterpress and silkscreen. You create your own plates, and then print one colour at a time by contacting the inked plate to the paper. It's what Japanese families used in the 1970's to print their own greetings cards, and little has changed since.
Except the prices.
Sadly, the demise of supplies has meant we can't currently afford to keep it running, although we do still hold quite a cache of screens and flash bulbs needed to produce prints.
But with running costs now getting astronomically high, an alternative was needed. And so, enter the amazing Risograph!
Risography is like Gocco in that it prints each colour seperately, and uses similar screen technology. Like Gocco, silk screening and letterpress, the ink goes on wet, but unlike Gocco, limited to a teeny tiny A6 print size, this thing can produce A3 prints.
Colours are limited too, and mixing them is very very hit and miss. Each colour requires its own artwork plate, which is supplied as a single black PDF, leading to all sorts of problems for those of limited brainpower, but after lots of messing around, I've finally managed to get a result!
These are only test prints, but they have a fantastic quality from the eco-friendly soy based inks.
More artwork will follow, and will be available to buy as numbered editions.
In the meantime, anyone wanna buy our Gocco? Comes complete with a booty of 18 screens, 34 bulbs, and masses of inks!
