We have finished designing the 2011 Maraid Christmas cards – a set of three bright and happy designs. All we have to do now is wait for them to come back from the printers!

I’m just back from three lovely weeks in Norway, with lots of holiday photos to sort and a few blog posts to write – I’ve made a small start by scanning my polaroids.

We have settled into our lovely new office and eventually got round to doing a 360 virtual tour. See it in action on the about us page.

Christmas card time and there is nothing like a good kick up the arse to get creative. While designing the gocco print I managed to keep it simple (I have to remind myself simple works best). A two colour print using florescent pink and gold.. slightly overlapping colours with little registration to worry about. I’m hoping the moleskine notebook ‘card’ will be a nice mini christmas gift that will be kept post christmas and prove useful in 2011.

Prints and notebooks available for sale in the Maraid Etsy shop

With the last batch of 600 film all gone from the polaroid factory prices are rising fast. Although I have some left I don’t think I will buy anymore unless the impossible project do the impossible and bring it back.. here’s hoping.

Gardens at Blois, Loire

• More polaroids taken in France

I’ve made a few unsuccessful Gocco prints since my first one. Its fustrating when it goes wrong – the wasted screens, bulbs, ink and time. But when it goes well its rewarding. Freshly printed are this year’s christmas cards.. the skating chimp.

Things I have learnt in the past few efforts. Always test inks before applying them to the screen – with some of the older inks the oil has separated and comes out the tube first – this made my paper stick to a screen. Don’t put the foam separators too close to the ink area as the will stop it from printing a solid colour. Start designing with the colours you have – I scanned in the tube packaging and made a illustrator swatch palette with the colours so I could easily experiment. I’ve found mixing colours hasn’t worked very well. Yellow hardly shows up on the off-white card I use. More complicated designs look better on screen, more simple ones look better printed.

Prints are available in my Maraid Etsy shop.

This summer we’ve spent various days exploring the East Coast of North England. A day at Bridlington was packed with lots to see. After a couple of hours at the arcades and seaside there was the Old Penny Memories and then down the road to Bondville Model Village. I have written a little bit about Old Penny Memories for Nothing To See Here and seem to have an ever growing list of unique places that I would like to write about.

Pinball machine at Old Penny Memories

Bondville Model Village

• More Bridlington pictures on my Flickr

I always wanted a Polaroid camera, one of the models that allows focus and depth of field. I have been given a Polaroid 680. Its a lovely balance between shooting digital and film. I have to think carefully about every shot but have the instant gratification of that special one-off picture.

Inspired by a photo by hier houd ik van.

Or, I should say, my first successful gocco print.

It had taken me a while to decide to invest in a Gocco printer. Riso, the makers of the Japanese home screen printing kit stopped production in 2005. I eventually took the plunge and purchased PG-11 kit on Ebay from Japan.

My first attempt was frustratingly unsuccessful. To make your master screen Gocco requires you to use a print made from carbon ink. I tried to make my master screen from a photocopy which attached itself after exposure (even using the blue filter). After more internet research it seemed that people had less problems using a laser printer. Following their advice my second attempt was a success.

Advice and lessons learnt

I read quite a lot about people getting patchy prints and not using enough ink. I may have over inked a little and my first design required a lot of coverage. From this I learnt..

It may sound obvious but it can get messy, at least messier than instructional videos may lead you to believe. For the mess have to hand; turps, rags and newspaper.

Ink got past my screen and onto the printer body. I used a philips screwdriver to remove the see-through plastic plate to clean it, using cotton buds (q-tips) to get into the smaller spaces.

Have spare jars for excess ink. Old clean spice jars would be ideal.

The final product

For this first attempt I tried to keep things simple. One screen for the print, using two colours. I am looking forward to experimenting with a two screen print using the PG-11 registration plate.

After seeing my Micheal Lewis of MIKMIK Studios‘ Gocco prints I asked him where to purchase the card that he used (for his beautiful prints). The 250gsm Bier paper is manufactured using a combination of leftovers from the brewing industry: beer labels and malt/yeast/hops fibres. Available from the Green Stationery Company.

Prints are available in my new Maraid Etsy shop.