Kelley & Patrick are getting married in the Rock Garden at The Hotel Hershey, a luxury hotel located on the hilltop overlooking Hershey, Pennsylvania, aka The Sweetest Place on Earth. Kelley wanted to incorporate some lush blooms & swallows into their wedding invitation design. I used a large garden rose bloom on the invitation as well as the cocktail insert card. For the RSVP postcard & rehearsal dinner invitation I had two small swallows.
Everything was gocco screenprinted on 100% cotton Lettra paper in white with coordinating envelopes in olive green & slate gray inks. Jennifer Cota of Pretty Pen Jen created a custom address stamp for Kelley to stamp the back of the RSVP postcard & the main envelope.
With this invitation I have decided to finally announce that I will no longer be gocco screenprinting any type of announcements or invitations. I have two more weddings to complete in the next few days & one final invitation to print later this fall, but once those are done, so is the gocco. I have been saying "this is my last gocco invitation!" for the past year, but I have decided it is time to move on for a number of reasons.
As most people know, gocco supplies are no longer being made. Supplies are very low, but demand is higher than ever, therefore costs are higher than ever. Since no new supplies are begin made, what is left is left...meaning to say some supplies are old. Bulbs do not flash when they should. Ink is starting to settle & separate in the tubes. White ink is nearly impossible to find & when you do find it, the cost is outrageous. Screens are beginning to cost as much as a magnesium letterpress plate?! As time consuming & challenging my letterpress is, I would rather deal with that 1,000 lb. cast iron beast than 30 lbs. of plastic from Japan because my letterpress is much more predictable. Is my screen going to burn? When it does, will even come out right? But when I receive a letterpress plate, I know it will print.
This is not say that gocco has become harder than letterpress {not at all!}, but they each have their challenges. Gocco used to be a lot of fun for me. It is how my studio got its start. But somewhere in the past year it stopped being fun & started to become work. A lot of work. I finally stopped & asked myself why the heck was I still doing it? Who was making me do this....? When all I want to do is letterpress...
Perhaps I will do a little gocco here & there, but only for personal projects. Once these wedding invitations are complete, supplies will be packed up & I will line my three goccos upon a shelf as a reminder of my studio's humble beginnings.
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