Silver Case

Over the weekend I finished up my second messenger bag.

New features?

• Inside I sewed a waterproofed, sealable pocket that is large enough to hold an A3-size document.
• I added an internal, elastic keychain for my bike lock.
• Did some experimental logo work with my Print Gocco. Didn’t turn out great.

Materials?

• Used this hard canvas-like stuff called ‘Ticking’. It’s the same material I made my bespoke railroad engineer hat from.

• For the strap I used the belt from a construction worker’s safety harness. It’s really strong and supple, and I love the crude metal buckle and “PROLOCK” label sewn on.

The only thing left to do is to assemble My Adafruit Industries MiniPOV3 LED micro-controller kit so that I can illuminate my bag with a series of LEDs. The kit just arrived today.

This late afternoon I was looking for a project to work on and decided to play some more with my Print Gocco kit.  Last time I left it, I was using print gocco fabric paints and working on stencilled t-shirts.  I resumed my prototyping work today and figured a number of tricks.

•  You need to swab the squeegee over the stencil/print several times in order to get good ink passthrough and absorption. It will tend to make the lines a bit thicker, but overall it’s a better result. I pres fairly hard, too.
• Messy as hell. Be meticulous in keeping ink off the print side of the screen.
• My Canon bubblejet printer seems to make prints that are very usable for gocco master-making.
• I tried to clean and save my print screens last time, but I find that they were subtly broken in some cases — air blisters formed between the screening material and the thin plastic layer.  This means the ink presses through in something of a blur.
• khaki = 2-3 parts orange, 1 part green. If it’s too dark, a tap of lemon yellow lightens it up a bit.

As a reference to myself, the Tokyu Hands at Shinjuku/Takashimaya Times Square has less choice of Gocco supplies than the Tokyu Hands at Shibuya.