Envelope patterns

Illustration by Clemens Habicht

My ever expanding bag of recycled envelopes and papers

Assortment of collected envelopes featuring different patterns

Some of my experimental illustrations below, featuring envelope pattern detail on the

coffee pot and cup & saucer. With these I've scanned in the envelopes and

changed the colour to suit the artwork.

Below are some examples of experimenting with the Gocco printer by printing

directly onto the envelopes.

In the weekend papers a few weeks ago I spotted this collage illustration using the patterns found on the inside of envelopes, created by the very talented Clemens Habicht.  I too am an avid collector of envelopes, so I thought I'd share some of my envelope patterns.

There is surprisingly quite an array of different patterns, textures and colours to be found on the inside of envelopes - and I always love opening an envelope to find a new pattern waiting patiently to be discovered on the inside.  (It actually makes opening bills a bit more interesting).  Mr B know's never to throw away an envelope before I've given it the once over! 

The patterns on the envelopes remind me of Japanese patterns with their miniature scale, perfect repetition and symmetry.   I use the envelopes for collages, printing with lino prints or gocco prints, and for experimental sketches and illustrations - I've included a few examples above.    

So next time you get a boring bill through the post, remember to look inside the envelope to see what patterns you might find.

Gocco Christmas cards

Well, given Christmas is only a few weeks away I thought it was about time to organise some festive cards!  

I decided to use my Gocco printer to create the cards as I certainly need the practise with it!  A Gocco printer is a Japanese mini screen printing system, perfect for printing cards and small images.  It's a very nifty bit of kit, where you use the one machine to expose the screens and print the image.  I got my Gocco printer last year and must admit I've struggled to get suitable results - but these cards have worked out OK I think..... 

I hand drew my images (using the special Gocco carbon pen) and like any screen print you need to create seperate images, for seperate colours. 

You then need to expose the images onto the mini screens - this is done using flash bulbs as seen above.

Here are the images exposed onto the seperate screens (the paper artwork is still behind the screen)

Then I printed my first image - you can create lots of prints so I made sure I cut and folded all of my cards beforehand.  I liked the idea of having different coloured cards, so I used a mix of colours and I also trialled different paper stock (some smooth, some textured etc).

Then I printed the second image over the top to create the final image.  Voila!  My hand screen printed Christmas cards! 

I'm really no expert on Gocco printing and I'm still learning with trial by error!!  There is lots of information about Gocco printing on the internet - and I've included some of my favourite links below;

Gocco Flickr Group

Gocco machines and supplies on Etsy - Print Addict Japan

Gocco supplies Australia - Nehoc

Gocco links from Meet Me At Mikes

And lastly one of my favourite Gocco artists - Bridget Farmer.  Bridget has a fantastic Gocco print tutorial on her old blog, with a very easy step-by-step process and pictures for each step.