I should have gone to design school

Not that I'm any great talent, but I have to say that I'm much more inspired by design than I am by genetics (though at one time I was pretty inspired by genetics...) Even though he didn't know it, Bruce bought me a great Christmas gift this year. It was exactly what I wanted!

A print gocco machine:
http://www.savegocco.com/what.html

And a print gocco fabric stamper:
http://www.gocco.co.za/stamp_printing.htm

If you don't feel like reading the links, here's the skinny: print gocco is a Japanese home screenprinting gadget. And the fabric stamper lets you screenprint easily on fabric using color fast inks. I am so inspired by people who design and print their own textiles like Lara Cameron
(http://www.laracameron.com/) and

Bianca van Meeuwen
http://hollabee.blogspot.com/


The biggest problem I have is that I'm not an artist. But thankfully there are ways around this. Namely, lately I have been buying Japanese books that feature copyright-free designs (sort of like Dover books in the U.S.). I have started adapting some of these designs for my projects. Today I broke out the print gocco for the first time. I think I need to acquire some techinique, but here's my first try:

The fabric is a scorched-up old presscloth that's not long for this world. The two designs, bubbles and lotus, are both adaptations of designs from Japanese books.

Another secret of mine is that I have long dreamed of making leather handbags and now I fantatize about using the gocco to print on leather. Tonight I practiced on an old suedehandbag and am really excited by the potential. If you've been checking my Etsy shop lately you might have noticed that my inventory is low and that I haven't added any new bags in a while. That's because I'm busy with new designs, materials, and graphics. I'm also thinking of how much fun I could have with this on gogovivikids clothing...