Christmas Hours

We'll be open right up until Christmas Eve this year.
Sunday 11am – 2pm
Monday 9am – 6.30pm
Tuesday 9am – 12pm

We hope you have a great festive season, we look forward to seeing you in the New Year!
Sweet Workshop will re-open for 2014 in mid January.

Christmas Showcase

Over the Christmas season we'll be showcasing some of our favourite artists. We would also like to welcome a handful of new artists to the gallery including inner-west locals Eli Gallwey, Filippa Buttitta,  as well as Bricks & Paper. To find out more about these artists visit out Featured Artists page. 

We're looking forward to taking part in the Summer Sydney Finders Keepers Market opening on Friday 6th - Saturday 7th December. We'll be selling our new Christmas decorations 'Speech baubles' as well as our Christmas Card range. Of course Sweets Workshop will be bringing along our own brand of tea towel designs, poster and art prints, zines and stationery. We'll be happy to see familiar faces, so if you  are checking out the market, pop by and say hi! 

OPENING SUNDAYS:  To help fight the Christmas rush, from the 10th December Sweets Workshop will also be opening on Sundays from 11am - 2pm, right up until Christmas Eve. 

Food Fight - The Festive Feast Artists & writers revealed

Our 4th annual Food Fight exhibition and calendar launch is on this Sunday 13th Oct for the Summer Hill Neighbourhood Feast, which is part of Sydney's Good Food Month. 

The fabulous artists and writers to check out in this 2013's Food Fight event are:

John D-C
I am a Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Toy Customiser. I use a mix of traditional hand-generated techniques along with digital processes to achieve a look that is new but that also has a very vintage commercial illustrative feel to it. I like to fill my creative work with colourful references to popular culture taken from my many hobbies and interests which usually include a healthy combination of comic books, 1980’s cinema, rock and roll music, vintage action figures, 1950’s movie posters and Saturday morning cartoons.

Emmajane Illustration
Emma Simmons is an illustrator and graphic designer. As a compulsive collector of shapes, textures, patterns and fabrics, I have a huge source of inspiration to draw from – but I need a bigger cupboard. Much of my work is collage based, I relish getting away from the computer and doing things by hand. 

Bev Malzard
Bev Malzard is a woman of significant age. For decades, even before the new millennium, she has worked as a journo, mainly in travel writing. In her journeys she has always been on the lookout for great food. She eats it, photographs it and writes about it. Sweet and savoury: but sweet wins her heart every time – she thinks there should be a little sugar in everyone’s life.

Bonnie Boogaard
Bonnie Boogaard is a Perth based artist whose love for food inspires her watercolour paintings and sculpture work. She likes to create fun and happy artwork that can be enjoyed by a large audience. Bonnie gained her Bachelor of Arts from Curtin University in 2010, studied her honours in Paris in 2011 and has been creating food based art ever since.

Carmen Hui
An illustrator from Sydney’s Inner West, Carmen is very much inspired by animals and nature. Often working with mixed media, her work is very much influenced by early botanical and anatomical drawings. When she is not drawing, you will very likely find her either crafting like a crazy nanna or sharing milky tea with her cat Miso.

Dianne Conlon
I’ve loved arts and crafts forever, my playroom is overflowing with stuff ready for whatever inspiration comes to mind. New materials to experiment with is my guilty pleasure but the traditional crafts should not be ignored either. Practice, practice, practice and have fun is the best advice ever given.

Emma Kidd (Benconservato)
Emma Kidd works in a room of black painted paper, paint, metal brads & disjointed limbs. Full pieces of paper & scraps litter most surfaces in her flat (she even finds paper pieces in bed). She carefully creates each body, feather and expression, then pieces them together to create creatures that wriggle & dance.

Glenn Harvey
Glenn has 17 years’ experience producing unique designs that give clients a point of difference. Glenn has produced work for Disney, Mattel, Virgin and a number of small businesses. In Beaster Egg, his two great loves - chocolate and design, have finally come together.

Julie Mia Holmes
Julie is a printmaker and artist who lives on the South Coast of NSW.   When she’s not pecking about her studio making feathered and furry work she earns her feed moonlighting as a bookseller & wholefoods retailer.

Kate Allan
Vegetarian. Animal lover. Baker. Sewer. When she’s not being Mrs Sprout of Sprout & Bean catering, she’s fighting the dogs for the couch, the cats for the bed, chasing the chickens and making treats for her husband. She can be found teapot in hand, looking after all of them in a rust coloured cottage on top of a mountain. If she’s not in the garden growing beans, she’s wielding a knife in the kitchen murdering carrots.

Meredith Walker-Harding
Part time puppeteer, tour organiser & ukelele player; full time tea drinker, pineapple enthusiast, crafter and sweet treat baker for Sprout & Bean catering.

JOIN US FOR OUR FOUTH ANNUAL FOOD FIGHT!

FOOD FIGHT

13th October - 6th November 2013

At Sweets Workshop we love art, not to mention food. Our annual Food Fight event combines these two passions by inviting artists and writers to submit pieces around a specified food theme during Sydney's Good Food Month. 

This is our 4th collaborative Food Fight exhibition and accompanying calendar produced by Sweets Workshop. Food Fight is all about food, pitting image against text, recipe against illustration, photograph against story. In the ring this year – FESTIVE FEAST!! 

The official exhibition opening and calendar launch will take place on the 13th October to co-inside with the Summer Hill Neighbourhood Feast and Sydney's Good Food Month. The exhibition will run from Sunday, 13th of October until Wednesday, 6th November 2013. The calendar is a limited edition print run, printed on 100% recycled paper and will be available from Sweets Workshop while stocks last.

Date: Launch day - Sunday 13th Oct 2013 for the Summer Hill Neighbourhood Feast

Exhibition runs from 13th October - 6th November 2013

Where: Sweets Workshop, Shop 4, 58-60 Carlton Crescent, Summer Hill 2130 

Interview with stencil artist Maria Harding

Stencil Portraits on reclaimed wood by Maria Harding

EXHIBITION EXTENDED UNTIL 24th SEPTEMBER

What is the concept behind ‘Chasing Rainbows’ and what can people expect to see in your exhibition?
Since starting Stencil Portraits in 2011, I’ve absolutely loved creating custom portraits of children, capturing a moment in time and making it into something that can be treasured for years to come as an artwork.  But with all my portraits, I’ve had to part with them as they’ve been commissions for other people. So I thought it would be really nice to create some of my own personal portraits and have a bit of fun with them by adding whimsical and imaginative aspects to them and giving myself the freedom of doing my own thing.

People can expect to see joyful paintings of kids all engaged in fun nostalgic activities all painted on variety of wooden pieces.

Can you tell us a bit about the artistic processes you use to create your work? 
It starts with an idea in my head, a memory from my childhood or often an idea sparked from something my 3 year old has said or done. Then I’ll take photos of my son and his friends playing and work out which of these can be interpreted into my idea. I start out in photoshop, working with initially a filter, then redrawing and reworking elements to get the desired two tone effect. Then I print it out and hand cut the stencils, before painting with acrylic paints. I should say this is also a bit of a team effort as my husband has helped me in cutting, sanding and sticking together the planks of reclaimed wood ready for me to paint on. I can’t saw in a straight line so without him, I think I would have had to stick with canvases!

What lead you to work with reclaimed materials, what do you enjoy about it?
I love the idea of taking something that has been discarded and destined for landfill and turning it into something beautiful, and wood has so much potential for this. I often see offcuts/ old furniture thrown out on roadsides in my neighbourhood and one day picked one up and thought it would make a great little ‘canvas’. Painting on wood, especially if its got alot of natural grain or is rough cut has its challenges but I also find it so much more rewarding than painting on canvas and enjoy working with the texture, I feel it adds more depth and character to a painting.

What inspires your work? 
I’m inspired by alot of different things and people. My little boy is hugely inspiring with his abundant energy and enthusiasm for life, and I find kids in general inspiring as they remind me of my childhood and all the imagined worlds and games I would play in. Artistically, I’m inspired by street art, abstract art, interior design and expressive portraiture. I’m a big fan of colour, and get inspired when I see nice colour schemes, in nature or otherwise. At the moment with it being winter, I”m loving the sunsets we get around Marrickville - there are some awe-inspiring colours out there.

www.stencilportraits.com.au

Artist call out for Food Fight 2013

Call out for FOOD FIGHT submissions 2013

The FESTIVE FEAST – Edition

Food Fight is a yearly collaborative exhibition and accompanying calendar produced by Sweets Workshop. Food Fight is all about food, pitting image against text, recipe against illustration, photograph against story. In the ring this year – FESTIVE FEAST!!

We’re calling for submissions from artists and writers to contribute to the exhibition and calendar. What we’re looking for are illustrations, design, photography, recipes, stories, poems and so on, that focus on the theme FESTIVE FEAST. For example, it could be about party food or a festivity!

The official exhibition opening and calendar launch will taking place on the 13th October to co-inside with the Summer Hill Neighbourhood Feast and Good Food Month. The exhibition will run from Sunday, 13th of October until Wednesday, 13th November 2013.  The calendar will be a limited edition print run and will be available while stocks last. Check out what was on offer in the previous 3 editions of Food Fight – Snack Attack, The Pack a Picnic Edition and The Sweet Tooth Edition.

If your artwork/written piece is selected it may feature in the calendar and/or the exhibition. Any written piece or artwork chosen to be included in the Food Fight calendar or exhibition will receive a free copy of the calendar. There will also be one arts prize and one writer’s prize awarded for Food Fight. The arts prize winner will receive a solo exhibition at Sweets Workshop in 2014. The winning writer will receive a Sweets Workshop gift voucher.

 Submissions close on the 25th of August 2013. Email us your entry as a low res electronic file (pdf or jpg) to info@sweetsworkshop.com. If your work is chosen, we will contact you for high res files, which we will require by the 1st September 2013. If working digitally please make sure you work to 300dpi, and if working by hand we can organise high res scans. Please feel free to forward this invitation to anyone you think might be interested in contributing. 

For those of you who don’t know about Sweets Workshop we are a retail art gallery which exhibits and stocks art, decorative objects, giftware and independent publications with a strong focus on locally handmade items. Located in Summer Hill, our aim is to offer the community something original, sweet and within reach. We have a dedicated exhibition space, which can feature one particular artist/designer, object, artistic process or theme at a time. The exhibitions change regularly to incorporate as many artists and designers as possible. For information about us please visit our website www.sweetsworkshop.com

The selection criteria for Food Fight will be at the discretion of Sweets Workshop. 

Interview with felt artist Meredith Walker-Harding

We've finally tracked down the mysterious master felt forger Meredith Walker-Harding from the underground to tell us a bit about her show 'Felt Forgeries'. 
The show is now extended until the 13th August.

Can you tell us about the concept for your show ‘Felt Forgeries’? What can people expect to see?

Well, the title of my exhibition says it all really - the concept was to rip off famous works of art and re-create them in felt! The idea sprung up as a joke whilst brainstorming what the heck I could do, and stuck. As someone who dreams of making a living by making things, the possibility of this ever becoming a reality grows more remote, naive and desperate with each passing year. So what else was I to do but turn to art forgery to make ends meet?! 

People can expect to see very lumpy copies of masterpieces from Monet, Picasso, Mondrian, Miro, Matisse and Nolan.

Your creations are quite intricate, can you describe your processes?  

After I chose which piece to forge, I simplified the work down to it’s basic lines, colours and composition. Using this, I made a stylised template, cut out each felt piece and then stitched like crazy! The stitching really made each piece come to life - I was able to emulate brush strokes, add details and depth to the flat block colours of the felt.

What were some of the challenges you faced in putting together your pieces for the show?

The biggest challenge was choosing which pieces to copy. Each work needed to be instantly recognisable, but also able to be translated into felt and still look good! I learnt quickly to stay away from people after an attempt to copy ‘The Mona Lisa’ resulted in a weird disfigured pink blob! Finishing off and framing each work was also tricky and involved lots of cardboard and double sided tape! I began to lose confidence in my idea, abilities and work the closer the exhibition opening got, but fortunately for me, my very kind and encouraging husband and friends pulled me out of my artists’ funk and got me to the finish line in one piece!

To View photos of the exhibition opening, click here

Pack of Heroes Contest

You may have noticed that Sweets Workshop has gone a little superhero crazy lately. So we're hosting a "Create a Superhero" Competition to coincide with the current exhibition Pack of Heroes.

All you have to do is come up with your own superhero idea and return it to us by June 18th and you could win a Pack of Heroes T-shirt or poster.

You can download the entry form here.

Here are some great entries we have already received!

Of course you can still help Pack of Heroes get produced by supporting it on Kickstarter.

Interview with Illustrator and Graphic Designer of 'Pack of Heroes' John D-C

What Is Pack Heroes? How have you been involved?

Pack of Heroes is an up-and-coming, action packed card game where players control a team of comic book superheroes and battle it out in a quest to gain control of Power City.

A little over a year ago my good friend and game designer Phil Walker-Harding from Adventureland games asked me whether I wanted to help him illustrate and work on the graphic design for his latest game, a superhero card game. This was pretty much my dream job. Phil really understood what he wanted the game to be and we were definitely on the same page about creating a fun group of brand new superheroes for the game. Phil set the scene with a few ideas for characters but was happy to let my imagination run wild.

Describe your illustration style and influences?

My illustrations are based around the many characters I create, they include the ever romantic Dorothy Dish and Edward Spoon, the hip shakin’ chain rattling Frankie, a pink fluffy monster with a sweet tooth for vinyl records, an attacking race of pizza slice aliens and now a pack of 30 brand new superheroes.

I have my own particular style of illustration, where I use a mix of traditional hand generated techniques as well as digital processes to achieve a 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s commercial illustrative feel. I like to fill my work with colourful pop culture references from comic books to album covers and movie posters to animation. 

I have been reading and collecting comic books for the past 25 years, it is one of my favorite hobbies. From the beginning of the Pack of Heroes project it was clear that we were looking for a fun and offbeat group of Superheroes to make the game enjoyable and accessible to a wide audience of people of all ages who aren't necessarily comic book fans. Here I decided to look back to the silver-age of comic book production for a little inspiration.

For a little bit of background, the silver-age of comic books spanned from about the mid 1950's until the 1970's. It left behind a lot of the gritty realism and propaganda seen in comic books of the World War II era (think of the early gangster crime and detective world of Batman, or the War efforts of Captain America) in exchange for more fun science fiction based story lines. This period saw the creative talent of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby help Marvel Comics take the spotlight with the creation of characters such as The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Ironman, Spider-Man and the X-Men, characters who were fun, new, exciting and well and truly fictional.

When it came to illustrating the game, I looked to the dynamic, poses and bold costumes created by illustrators such as Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Buscema, Sal Buscema and Herb Trimpe. Within the game each character is only shown once and the illustration had to clearly represent what the character is all about while also show off their powers at a glance.

What are some challenges you faced while working on 'Pack of Heroes'?

By far the biggest challenge I faced was the scope of this project, conceptualizing, sketching, refining and creating finished art for 30 new heroes is no mean feat and while I lost track of the actual time I spent on this project many times, I reckon It was somewhere around the 300 hour mark. A further challenge was really keeping continuity in the illustrations, how could a Humanoid Unicorn in a pair of rainbow metallic shorts and a Blind Female Superhero Judge carrying a giant gavel exist within the one game? It was all down to the illustration. I had to make sure each character worked on their own and together as part of the whole project, ensuring that my Illustration style didn’t change as the project moved forward. I overcame this challenge by making sure that my sketches were well and truly locked in before I began working on the finished artwork.

A further challenge was treading, a sometimes very fine line between referencing, acknowledging and parodying existing superheroes and popular culture to create something new, exciting and fun which appeals to a broad audience.

Illustrating a game is one thing but working on the graphic design for it is another thing entirely. It is quite tricky with usability and continuity definitely being the most important factors to consider. While working on the graphic design for the game I also really wanted to fill it with references to superhero comic book design, be it through layout, typography and logo or icon design.

What can people expect to see at the exhibition 'Pack of Heroes'?

The Exhibition is really the first public outing for Pack of Heroes as it now moves from its play-testing phase into its production stage. It will unveil the 30 brand new superhero characters that John D-C has illustrated for the game as well as featuring a behind the scenes look into the development process of the game.

The exhibition will allow you to meet the creators of the game and even have a play of it before its release!  It will also feature a few things created to help advertise Pack of Heroes, such as a promotional-viral video and a series of one-off action figures created by John D-C

Interview with creator of 'Creature Cravings' Julie Holmes

What is the concept behind your show?

There is something particularly special about glimpsing a bird of prey on the horizon or catching a rustling of leaves in the nearby bushes. 
I am a fauna fanatic and I know that not everyone would feel a sense of rapture like I do when I capture a glimpse of creature in my nearby vicinity.
 BUT they are there! Even if you don't know they are or choose to ignore them. 
In Janine Bourke's book 'Nest' she says "We tend to take birds for granted, in the landscape or in our neighbourhoods. The presence of birds communicates the health of a place. When they're gone, it's as though there's a hole in the sky, in the air, an absence of beauty and grace, and vivid chatter or haunting cries are replaced with eerie silence."
This is just a reminder, a gentle prod and peck….. You might even make a new friend of two…

What can people expect to see in your exhibition?

Prints, prints, PRINTS! 
Creature Cravings is a collection of Linocuts and Etchings with a little bit of Screen Printing, Bunting and Collage thrown in.

What inspires your work?

Anything from the natural world. Give me a cup of tea and a David Attenborough doco and I'm one contented little bird.
I live on the South Coast so walks on the beach are a good way to get out and have a break. There are a pair of White Bellied Sea Eagles that live nearby and no matter how lost or frustrated I feel with some work I'm doing they always make me feel better.

Looking at other artists' work always helps to think in a different way too. 
At the moment I've been looking at David Hockney's landscapes, Sally Mann's 'Deep South' photos and Ben Quilty's new paintings. But there are too many to name! 
For printmaking inspiration there is always Kiki Smith or William Kentridge and for drawing ideas there's Aida Tomescu, Anselm Keifer, Mike Parr…….the list goes on!

I read A LOT. Sometimes I read when I should be doing other things. I'm particularly good at procrastinating…….
I love Kids books from authors like Oliver Jeffers, Emily Gravett and Tove Jansson's Moomin books. They have a sense of humour and the drawings are fantastic. 
Fiction is important too. Sometimes a sentence or phrase can pop up that magically fits with what I'm thinking about in my work. Angela Carter, Gerald Durrell and Yann Martell are just a few names in a big pond!

Can you tell us a bit about the artistic processes you use to create your work?

I approach making an image in a very experimental way. I like to play with different materials and compositions as I put the plates down on the press just before printing. Sometimes I'll bolt out the door at the last minute to grab some gum leaves or plant matter to emboss or do a rubbing to collage on. I can get quite impatient so things happen very quickly and spontaneously. 
I am a bookish person (possibly an understatement….) and have a large collection of animal and bird books that I take images from for prints. I like cropping the creatures back so they are almost ambiguous, a peep hole into another world.

We realise that you have a fondness for animals, what draws you to capture them in art form... And do you give them names like pets?

I love animals. There are so many varied and wild creatures out there that sometimes we can find it hard to imagine they even exist. 
They teach us things about the world around us and are indications of how much things are changing in our environment. 
I use them as metaphors for the human condition, as reminders of the fragility and beauty of life.

I don't think of my creatures as pets, they are characters in their own right and naming them is the best part! Charles Dickens is always in the back of my mind - now there's a man who could name his characters! Polly Toodle, Pumblechook, Uriah Heep….They roll off your tongue. I always have to say them aloud to decide which name is best….Ms. Drusilla Duck, Mr. Eustace Hare, Mr. Reginald Badger, Miss Matilda Tawny Frog Mouth….
I'm interested in how we anthropomorphise animals, giving them human qualities and characteristics to understand and empathise with them. Language is the thing that separates us.

An exhibition celebrating Print Gocco, featuring many Australian artists who use the Gocco to create their work. 

What is Gocco?

A self-contained compact color printing system invented in 1977 by Noboru Hayama. It’s similar to screen printing, but in a mini form.

When: Saturday 23rd March – 16th April

Time: Official exhibition opening at 2pm, Saturday 23rd March

Location: Shop 4, 58-60 Carlton Crescent, Summer Hill NSW (Just opposite Summer Hill Station)

Demo: Print gocco demo 1.30pm, Saturday 6th April 

GOCCO ARTISTS 

Benconservato (NSW) is the alias of Emma Kidd an artist / illustrator. She has traveled and lived in Europe and a land of mythical animals. Her heart is still in both, despite loving being back in Australia. She encourages you to find your inner monster.

"I like the fact Gocco is accessible, compact and a little lo-fi, even if the later can drive you crazy if you had something else in mind."

Bubala (Jo Everett, NSW) Following a career in Graphic Design, and at home looking after her small children, Jo had extremely itchy feet for some hands-on creativity and starting creating personal and household items. This indulged her love of fabric, sewing and printmaking and also followed her philosophy that to live every day with things you love is good for the soul.

“Coming to Gocco after block and screen printing, I found it quite an unusual process but fun and inspiring. Gocco allows me to play with the precision of a computer generated design but with the feel of a hand made print, each one being slightly different - I love the fact that the Gocco process itself adds a little something of its own to your design: another dimension.  Added to that is the fact that you can print multiple copies really quickly and easily. Fantastic!”

Cat Rabbit (VIC) is a textile artist who predominantly creates anthropomorphised plush animals while imagining the worlds they might live in. Cat's practice is centred around the idea of making extraordinary objects out of humble materials. Working with soft sculpture and embroidery techniques, Cat creates one of a kind pieces for exhibitions, her online store and selected markets and retailers. 

Cat has created Owl Know How, a book for Children, with Isobel Knowles as well as being featured in many publications such as Frankie, Peppermint and Yen.

-- Gocco forever!

Do A bit (Lamina Godman, NSW) lives in lovely sunny Sydney, where she  indulges her passion (obsession) for screen printing textiles, sewing and her love for making beautiful handmade items. She believes there is nothing better than handmade and to "do a bit” creatively… everyday makes her one very happy lady!

"I love the rustic and slight imperfections that Gocco printing achieves, it's such a fun and inspiring way to print!"

Emma Simmons (Emmajane illustration, NSW) is an illustrator and graphic designer. As a compulsive collector of shapes, textures, patterns and fabrics, she has a huge source of inspiration to draw from, but she needs a bigger cupboard. Much of her work is collage based, she relishes getting away from the computer and doing things by hand. Interests and influences include: Art Deco, Nouveau, Monet, block printing, Poster art from the 20's through to the 50's.

"Gocco is an fun way to create on a small scale. It's a self contained mini form of screen printing, that will fit on your kitchen table. You can get some great and surprising effects by manipulating your paint colours and density." 

Ghost Patrol Works and lives in Melbourne Australia. A self taught artist, Ghostpatrol has moved from the field of stencil art to exhibit his drawing based creations worldwide. He currently resides in Melbourne at his ‘Mitten Fortress’ studio. His work ranges form fine ink drawing, street-art, commissioned murals and soft sculpture.

Ghostpatrol creates worlds. His ongoing exploration of hybrid animals and forests travels across mediums; from pasted posters to soft sculpture, watercolours and printmaking. His work often references childhood nostalgia and pop culture, with often quite sinister and playful undertones. From beginnings in stencil and street art, his current practice focuses on ambitious installation and painting projects.

John D-C (NSW) is a Graphic Artist and his creative projects are heavily influenced by his  many interests and hobbies. These usually include a healthy combination of Brick-A-Brack, Screen Printing, Rock & Roll Dancing, Blues Piano, Velvet Dinner Jackets, Art Deco Theatres, Record Shopping, The Creations Of Jim Henson, Ten Pin Bowling, The Hohner Harmonica, 1979 Bedford Short Wheel Based Vans, Print Gocco, Vintage Comic Books, White Elephant Stalls, Animation, Drive-in Movies and Cuba. 

"I first became aware of the Gocco via the failed Save Gocco campaign, and It was love at first sight. I couldn't believe such a wonderfully amazing machine actually existed and had existed since the 1970's in Japan. Gocco has quickly become my favorite creative medium and I tend to plan most of my illustrations around its low-fi idiosyncrasies. I love gocco prints, they are instantly recognisable and I feel that they have a beautiful old world charm about them, which is impossible to re-create in photoshop." 

Magic Jelly is South Australian artist and illustrator Karena Colquhoun. Both nostalgic and modern, her work mixes collage, printmaking, pencil and paint, with good old-fashioned digital technique. You will find her most days in her small home studio, listening to vintage radio plays and bebop, whilst playing with paper and ink.

"Those intriguing little ads in the back of comic books were an early obsession (I really wanted one of those coffin-shaped money boxes where a skeletal hand raked in your 10c pieces!). I loved the way ink & paper interacted - the way the ink bled & mingled with the cheap pulpy paper, the off-registration, the halftones - & that love of print stayed with me into adulthood, & made its way into my digital artwork, where I enjoy emulating print effects & textures. When I first set eyes on the Print Gocco in 2005 I couldn't believe that such a fantastic contraption actually existed - I couldn't wait to get my hands on one! I ended up buying four different models, my favourite being the classic light blue B6.

I love the fact that the Gocco was originally sold as a toy & has been appropriated by artists (like me) who love its low-tech charm. I love the fact that it makes small format prints & captures such fine detail. I love the unique quality of the prints themselves, kind of a cross between a screen print & a relief print. I love that fact that gocco is so accessible to anyone who wants to give printmaking a try - no need for a huge print shop (the kitchen table will do nicely!) or masses of cash. Most of all, I love the gocco's frustrating little idiosyncrasies that teach you to embrace imperfections as happy little accidents."




Meredith Walker-Harding is a part time puppeteer, tour organiser & ukelele player; full time tea drinker, pineapple enthusiast, crafter and sweet treat baker for Sprout & Bean catering.

Only a cute little japanese machine like the Gocco could turn my scratchy little sketch into a lovely, character-filled print! 



The Seven Seas is a multi disciplinary artist working with sculpture, illustration, installation and rap drawings. He spends the majority of his time cultivating his facial hair while watching cartoons and dreaming about expeditions through forests in far away lands in search of unknown creatures.

I hope Gocco will have a second wind and live a prosperous eternal life.