RISO prints are made with a Risograph printer. It looks like a photocopier, but works as a screen-printer, using rich spot colours and stencils to create tactile and vibrant prints, affordably and with little impact to our environment.
The RISO works by transforming black and white artwork into a stencil. The chosen colour drum is then inserted into the riso machine, and the stencil is wrapped tightly around it. Paper is fed flat through the machine, passing under the rotating drum, which prints the artwork onto the paper at high speed.
Stencils are made specifically for each drum and are non-transferable. One colour is printed at a time, and multicoloured prints are created by switching out drums, then over printing: passing the paper through the RISO repeatedly!
Riso printing is a highly energy efficient and sustainable printing method, making for an ethical product, unmatched by other printing methods.
The cold process consumes little energy, and the riso prints with soy based (non-toxic) inks, and stencils made from plant fibres. Unlike litho printing, it only takes a single print for the stencil to be fully inked and ready to print. It uses little electricity and eliminates the need for up to 100,000 litres of water and 10,000 litres of alcohol (per year) consumed by a typical mid-size printer.
The RISO inks produce a unique texture, resulting in a hand-printed and tactile finish. The inks are soy-based and non-toxic, which means they can take longer to dry. The ink sits on the surface of the paper and can therefore be prone to smudging if handled a lot (like newspaper). All inks are unique to the RISO process and colours produced cannot be accurately represented on the web.
Using inherited, undeveloped slide films from her grandparent’s collection, Alison re-establishes a personal connection between time and place and highlights these works via new methods of representation.
This new collection features slides, taken by Hedley Leonard Whittaker Woodcock in the 50's and 60's, and have been retouched and recoloured, giving them a Risograph-inspired look with strong use of the unique RISO Fluoro pink, Fluoro yellow, Fluoro orange and aqua colour palette.
With its rare double overshot waterwheels, milling has taken place at Dunster since medieval times. The first records appear in the Domesday Book. which records two corn mills on the site.
In 1620 these two mills were connected to form Lower Mill in the location of the current watermill. In 1779 a comprehensive set of works were carried out resulting in the watermill you can see today.
In 2019 James was approached to document the workings of the mill and produce a series of prints for display in the newly expanded tearooms at Dunster Castle.