Isle of Riso

Growing up in the Highlands, Alice Prentice, a DJCAD graduate, felt like there was a lack of approachable and accessible artistic opportunities. Alice recently founded Isle of Riso, a Risograph studio based in Inverness, to encourage locals and creatives to approach Riso printing as a way of being freely creative and making duplicated work. The studio currently houses an EZ570 Riso printer with 4 colours; Teal, Fluo Orange, Yellow, and Black, as well as manual cropping and binding tools. Thus far, Alice and her team have had great responses from local artists of all ages and experience, who are delighted to have a medium that’s new and inviting to work with in their area.

For the past 5 years she has been utterly obsessed with the Riso printing method, using it in her own work and encouraging others to do the same. Isle of Riso is inspired by many other great Riso printing studios across Scotland and the world. In particular, Alice highlights, Out of the Blueprint in Edinburgh, Riso Pop in Amsterdam (who she spent 2 months working with on a community project which resulted in an exhibition of hanging 3D riso prints), Yalla Riso in Dundee, Mono Print in Newcastle, and Riso Fort in Germany; all of which she would consider as friends of the Isle of Riso.

“The Riso community itself is so inspiring with an incredible host of people who are willing to share their knowledge and skills. New works are being printed every day and between the artist and the printer, it’s an electric experimentation table.”

Isle of Riso’s first project was a set of sample packs that customers could buy at a small cost in order to give them an introduction to the printing method. Each pack includes examples of illustrations, photographs, and colour charts plus a handy guide to help beginners understand the process and make their own artwork for the print method. The illustrations included in the sample packs are by artists who have experience of Riso printing before. These prints are exclusive to the sample packs and allow the artists to show their work to a new audience, people who may just be discovering their love for print and looking for inspiring creatives.

Still a fairly new studio, Alice has big plans in the pipeline for Isle of Riso, including their first official workshop for the public in November. They are also taking part in the Northword Storytagging project, run by the University of Highlands and Island, Robert Gordon University, and The Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme. The project focuses on retelling stories of Northern Countries through Arts and Crafts products. “We are delighted to be working alongside other talented creative businesses and individuals in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Russia, Sweden, and Finland,” says Alice. She is currently researching the stories behind the Maids of Bute which will result in a Risopgraph animated flip book.

Artists with all kinds of experience levels are welcome at the Isle or Riso, as they want to help people expand their skill sets. Alice tells us that their biggest goal as a studio, and one that they will never shy away from saying, is to have a mobile Risograph workshop, improving connections across The highlands and Islands to the greater art scene.

“We want everyone to see the fun in Riso printing and continue to push the boundaries and discover the capabilities of the printing method.”

@isle_of_riso

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