MIR Raport by Julia van Hulst

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Maker-in-residence report

Author Julia van Hulst Date 02.11.2020


Intro to Riso

Riso printers are like silkscreens. They print different layers on top of each other. Each layer is converted into a master, from which the prints printed. Usually, a riso printer prints two masters at the same time, like the one from the image that is located in the Makers Lab.

Printer.jpg


Inside you see the two rolls on which the masters are printed.

Rolls.jpg


In short, a layer in a document gets converted to a master in the printer, which has a colour.

If you would like to print more than two colours, you can create a third master and reprint the design on your paper. For my first encounter with the riso printer, I just used two colours and therefore two layers in my pdf document.

This is the ProCreate file with the two layers already on top of each other.

ProCreate.jpg


The Riso printer doesn't use ink, but oil on soy basis. This oil is contracted from vegetable soybeans. Therefore, it never really dries. Especially the darker colours take a long time to adhere to the paper. This is why it's important to use uncoated paper, which has a little rougher structure than 'normal' coated paper.

Preparations

Just take your layered pdf document with you and make sure you got some uncoated paper! I would recommend A3, but A4 is also possible.

Printing

First you create a master from the computer connected to the riso printer.

Colours.jpg


As you can see, the master is actually printed on the roll. The grey grid it is printed on is made out of banana leaves. Super sustainable!

Master on roll.jpg


When you take the master off, it looks like this. The Riso printer does that by itself, you do not have to change the masters.

Bare master.jpg


The first layer is printed. It takes a couple of prints, 10 or so, for the oil to be fully visible.

First layer.jpg


Then I spotted a little spot on my print. You can't just remove it, this is not Illustrator! We had to decompose the whole machine again to see what went wrong.

Mistake print.jpg


Which was a little piece of metal, stuck underneath the master.

Mistake roll.jpg


The drying end results.

Result.jpg

Drying.jpg