New Design- Toothfairy Pouch

I'm excited to be holding in my hot little hand, the newly released Tooth Fairy Pouch design. I've been planning this for a year now (one designer = many many many ideas and never "enough" time!) and so happy to have made a batch.

It's a wee tooth fairy pouch to keep those loose treasures safe under the pillow until the tooth fairy comes- perhaps to leave a treasure of her own in thanks. It features my own silkscreen print of possible baby creature teeth that the bag could contain, like baby dragon, or baby polar bear, or giraffe... they all loose their baby teeth..... the idea made me laugh and I had to make it.




It starts with a series of sketches in my design book. I narrow those down to my favorites. I sketch pouch ideas, and settled on the smallest pouch I could make (including lining!) and still get enough of my tooth "choices" on there to be fun.



I finalize the drawing and ink it in with a graphite pen. I put it through the gocco machine which burns the screen for me. I make a frame on the screen out of duct tape and "pull" ink over the screen to make the prints, just like silk screen printers do by hand. When the prototypes are sewn up and look good, I sew a real batch and finish it off with a set of nifty snaps.

Note to parents: some children are unsure about allowing a fairy free access to their bedroom while they are asleep. Smart kids, I say. I offer an alternative ritual that may be even more fun: have the child create a fairy bower in the back yard or at their place setting on the kitchen table. Fairies LOVE a sweet little place to rest, with flowers, nectar offerings, and pretty things. The tooth fairy would love to receive the tooth in the wee pouch, and leave her note, a pretty stone or crystal, and a coin in it's place. The waking child may notice a trail of glitter where the fairy entered the house and where's she's been!

Do you have any fairy traditions to share from your family?

Gocco Printing

Happy MOnday Everyone! It's another gorgeously sunny, crisp Autumn morning here in Oregon. The trees are in beautiful colors. Love this weather. My etsy store has been bustling with sales. Thanks shoppers! I love making my unique goodies for everyone, and it's wonderful when so many find happy homes.


Which do you prefer?

I'm creating a line of screen-printed coffee cozies.....Sneak peek at the newest design I'm working on. It's Nessy! The Lochness Monster, of course. I've had a lifelong fascination for her.

Creating a design with the Gocco machine starts with sketches, then the final drawing done is carbon ink. It's put into the machine, press the handle and BAM! The silk screen is etched! I have developed a method using loose screening by the yard rather than the premade frames. So I take my newly etched screen and frame it with duct tape. This holds the image flat for inking, and allows the entire thing to be washed in the sink (water based fabric paint of course).

Just like creating the new Zombie coffee cozy, I start with an idea of what color I'd like to print it in, but it doesn't always work. I've learned the contrast needs to be high, or you just can't see it. Sounds simple, but it's a process of auditioning ink with fabric.

I was in the studio for a few hours yesterday, the hens and kittens enjoying the sunny afternoon outside my open door. I experimented with screen printing on linen (for upcoming holiday ornaments), and working with this Nessy print. I wanted to put the image over stitched waves, but it didn't work for me. Get simpler. I wanted a nice bright water color, but not so busy it would interfere with viewing the image. Which do you like?

I've spent the last year learning about screen printing with a Gocco Machine, and falling in love with it. In the 80's almost every Japanese household had one to print their own cards, napkins, invitations, etc. They caught on in the US by the 90's and artists and calligraphers were putting them to all sorts of unusual uses.

Gocco Machines are somewhat expensive to get into and the supplies can be expensive. About $300 to get all set up. After wanting one for a year, I found mine at Goodwill for $23, then found simpler supplies to use. The good news is that the Gocco is so EASY to use for small paper or fabric projects. I am using prints more and more in the studio. The bad news is that after Dec, supplies will no longer be shipped to the US. The makers of Gocco have decided to move on to other technologies. I heard a rumor that the Martha Stewart company looked into making something similar and didn't find enough profit margin. And Gocco will be no more, but some other technology is bound to crop up.

Zombies vs Gnomes!

"Coffee For Brains" is my zombie season offering. I am more of a gnomes and sock monkies sort of person, but also enjoy monsters (the more original the better), have a life long love of Nessy (my new nessy design showing soon), and can easily amuse myself with Zombies.

What about Zombies who come up out of the ground for a fresh latte? I drew a graveyard where some "kind" soul has placed fresh coffee on all the graves, and our zombie is the first out. He looks so pleased to have coffee for brains.......


I ventured to my neighbor's fake graveyard for some fun shots of my zombie graveyard coffee cozy IN a graveyard. Thanks Melissa! And I noticed all the fine details in her decorating. She's glued on real moss and laid out fresh flower offerings!!!

Gocco and Give-Away!

WE WANT YOU!.... to get in on this fun Give-Away. I'm treating some lucky winner to a free Coffee Cozy Club Membership. That means four free coffee cozies sent to your door. (See Coffee Cozy Club on my etsy for details). In celebration of my 200th sale on Etsy, anyone buying an item before my 210th sale gets in the drawing AND anyone who posts about the give-away on their blog and comments here, gets in the drawing. I'll be pulling one lucky name in the next few days, so get signed up!

What's going on in the studio over the weekend? I have learned to use my print gocco on fabric for a special project. Here I am burning a screen. Pow! The lights go off, instantly turning this clip art and font into a usable silk screen! Of course it took me days of research to make sure I was using the right combination of products, and a day to prepare the clip art, making that part not so "instant", but the rest of the process is so fast and fun.

This is how I use loose screen. I make a frame from duct tape making it all water-safe so it's very easy to wash right in the sink. I squeegie over the screen to make a print. (Screen on right, finished print on left). I'd love to hear from other artists who are doing something similar.

"It's good to be king" patches and tests of black on red and white ink on red. I was very impressed at how good the white came out. Bring on the t-shirts for printing!!!

I wasn't planning on having "It's good to be king" tshirts in my etsy shop, but if anyone needs one of these patches or on a T, let me know.

Happy Monday All!

Gocco Rock-O!

The OTHER package that arrived was from Think Ink. Supplies for my Print Gocco! Think Ink's website isn't pretty, but they have great supplies, were very good at answering my questions, AND they have a brand new Gocco manual out!!! I highly recommend it for new gocco users. It's a full size book written by a woman who's used this system of printing since the 80's. It's loaded with information, easy to follow, and nicely organized. (Much much easier than trying to learn from the manual the Gocco comes with.)

I mainly plan to use Print Gocco for fabric printing, but my first project is on paper: hand printed Bliss Monkey Studio envelopes! I wrote out my master envelope with a carbon pen, zapped the image into a screen with the gocco, inked it up and printed a whole batch of envelopes. My next 100 coffee cozy customers will receive their cuffs in these new art mailers! A BIG thank you to all my etsy customers, fans, dear ones who heart my shop, and have returned again to shop. I love creating and mailing beautiful things right from my home to yours. Thank you!