HOYFC Production Partners - Risotto Studios

To make our awesome products, HOYFC work with lots of different production partners. Recently, the HOYFC Team and some friends went to Risotto Studios in Glasgow for a workshop to see what riso printing is all about.

At the time I was planning our Thanks Random Man, Your Opinion Is Noted Zine which I was keen to produce using risography. Riso is such a versatile printing method and the results look beautiful, but I knew very little about it so I wanted to experiment before embarking on a bigger project.

We used analogue printing methods for our riso printing class, which basically means we made a giant mess. You can draw directly onto your paper, stick things to it, paint...anything!

We made one sheet for each colour we were printing - I chose fluoro pink and aqua blue as these are the colours I was thinking about using for our zine and the results we amazing!

So how does riso printing work? The original drawing/collage is scanned into machine to create a master using tiny heat spots on a thermal plate. These heat spots burn holes in a master sheet to match the original image. This master sheet is then wrapped around a drum and ink is forced through the tiny holes in the master. The pictures are produced by running paper through the machine while the drum turns at high speed. One colour layer is printed at a time - the print above is on its second run through the machine.

Thanks so much to Risotto Studios for teaching us so much about risography, we all had a great time! If you'd like to book your own class, check out their Workshop info and if you'd like to buy some of our prints you can see my Other People's Opinions Print at HOYFC.com and Nikki McWilliams' Make Something Print is for sale in her store.