Arts In Rhode Island

Hey there, so it's been 5 months since my last post. I've been trying to chronicle my transition from my beloved Print Gocco to traditional screenprinting. I bought a Yudu back in March and I thought it would sort of be my gateway, a way to ease the transition. Unfortunately I'm starting to feel like it was a waste of money. I'm getting some use out of it, but not at all in the way the machine is intended. I'm using liquid emulsion ($16.50 for 28 ounces) rather than Yudu's weird emulsion sheets ($18 for 2 sheets), my sturdy wooden frame screens from college rather than Yudu's flimsy screens, regular speedball ink ($6.25 for 8 ounces) rather than Yudu ink ($7.45 for 3 ounces) and just regular old hinge clamps on my print table rather than using the Yudu. So basically the only thing I'm using the Yudu for is to expose the screens and I must say it does a mighty fine job at it! 3 minutes flat and my screens are ready to go.

For now I will continue this way, I've been having so much fun making onesies and little t-shirts. I still haven't tried to do any stationery or wedding invitations with my new set up. Yudu claimed that they were coming out with a higher mesh screens (their current screens aren't fine enough to do small text like I would be doing on wedding invitations) but I've seen no evidence of them. My plan is to buy some regular screens with a mesh count similar to Gocco screens and start doing some experimentation in the next month or so. I'm also excited to be able to finally start using more environmentally friendly supplies, because who knows what was in those Gocco inks!! I'm also really excited to see the change in my bottom line of my little business with my transition to traditional screenprinting. I very regularly drop a few hundred dollars on Gocco supplies, and with the cost of traditional screenprinting being so drastically less expensive it's really going to make a huge difference in my business.

Hopefully next time I post I'll have done some preliminary experiments with invitations and other papery, screenprinty goodness. I love Gocco, but man, I'm ready for this new chapter....