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Hand Sanitizer stations available FREE!
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We’re MOVING!
It’s time to let the cat out of the bag – We’re MOVING!
But wait! There’s SO MUCH MORE!
Yup, you read that right! After 3 (short) years we’ve started to bust at the seams… and finally we’ve found a spot that we can grow into and do all the things we’ve wanted to. We’re moving into a 10,000 square foot space, just around the corner at 760 Western Ave!
To help us commemorate this huge step, the Good to Go team at RAW Arts is creating a brilliant painting for our wall, in spite of the scorching heat wave-
They still have work to do to put on the finishing touches, but these folks are amazing and the mural is everything The Brickyard is all about. Here’s another peek:
The new space will let us do a whole lot of things we’ve been working on – including workshops and classes, community events, shows and exhibits, and taking on a whole bunch of new members with 4 times the member studio space available. We have a lot of work to do before our move-in in October, but here’s a look at what will be our main meeting area:
It’s just a few blocks away from our old shop but it feels like we’re much more a part of the Lynn community! We’re steps away from the new rail trail (and are planning a container “bike kitchen” shop, with a rest stop and tools for bike repair), across the street from Market Basket, and a stone’s throw from the Common.
There’s so much more, though! We’re working with Kayak and Sail Lynn, and have donated one of our containers for their Blossom St Extension site as a boat house, and that’s being painted by the Sirens Crew, headed by Allison Miller. We are planning some boat building classes there, maybe as soon as next Spring:
And then there’s the AMAZING WAMX team from RAW Art, and their mural at Lynn Museum – they needed some help with saws and wood, and that’s what we do – we taught the artists how to use our stuff, and stood back to watch their concept come to life!
Oh, there’s even more… we have a new shop dog, Maddie! We now have the New England Belt Sander Racing Association track (the “X2000”) and are planning an upcoming race (the “We Don’t Know What We’re Doing and You Can Too!” race) and we’ve signed on to the Lego/FIRST robotics and are putting.a team together for this season!
More on all this as plans progress, but as always, if you’re interested in helping or have questions, reach out and we’ll get you some answers and info.
It’s been a long haul, with many challenges in the last few years, but we’re finally seeing our vision come to life. The new space will be everything that we have been working for… a place for makers, STEM, artists and the community to do what we all dream of. On a personal note, I was showing the new place to a member who’s been on-board since day one, and he asked, “…did you ever expect to get this far, this fast?” We never dared dream it, no. But because of the community and the incredible support, and an amazing, ever-changing and growing team of members and leaders, here we are.
As always, “Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.”
See you at our new home in October!
Riso Karma – An Epilogue
Well now. After some adventures on CraigsList, some scams on the interwebs, some bad design and a couple of re-starts, it seems my Riso karma and dues paid is starting to kick in.
Thanks to a nefarious and unscrupulous dealer on eBay who goes by many names, but “RisoSource” and “David Lindsey Interdonati” works in most circles, I learned a whole lot about fixing drums. (After paying $1800 and getting 3 drums that were all non-functional, I had to bone up pretty fast.). Then I started exploring the online community. It was a pleasant experience.
On Facebook, there’s the Risograph Community group. Then there’s Risograph Printing. Both seem very helpful and pleasant, although a little like the 3D printing pages on Facebook – you see similar questions repeated almost weekly. There’s the Stencil Wiki site – a source of a huge amount of information. The Reddit subreddit is interesting too. Oh don’t forget the Discord page, though I don’t know really how it works, I was able to get on and make an occasional post. To be honest, I’m not even entirely sure what Discord is…
There, on Facebook, I met a gentleman, and I use that word rarely, by the name of Craighton Berman. Mr. Berman was selling some drums via Facebook, and one in particular caught my eye – a blue drum that he said was not working. He couldn’t tell me much about it, just that a service guy had told him it would be $400 to fix it, and it was fixable, but he was getting an “ink overflow” message on it and had picked up a new printer, so he didn’t want to deal with it.
He asked me to make an offer, I offered $150 for it which he said was “more than fair”. I was pretty confident I could fix it, but he said if it was junk, he’d refund me $75 for the trouble… this is why I use the term gentleman. He certainly didn’t have to do that. I paid him through PayPal and he shipped it on the next business day.
The drum came in and I had a look. The drum body was pretty seriously dented. It came from a printshop, so I’m going to assume it got dropped. I pulled it off and looked at the overflow sensor, and sure enough it was globbed with ink. I ordered a drum body (from China, $65) and wiped down the screen and poked at the dents in the body. Some of them came out with finger pressure.
International shipping being what it is these days, I started thinking about ways to try to fix the dents. I did a little High-School-Shop-Class level sheet metal work, and decided to slap the thing back together and see if I could make a print. Much to my amazement, it prints pretty well, so now I have blue, and a new friend.
Oh, one other shoutout – somehow Hallagans, the Riso supplier that I’d bought a few inks from, found out about us and sent a message on Instagram congratulating us on our “new” Riso. It seems they may have read the blog post, but they wanted our address to send a care package. And they did.
I was kind of shocked. They sent a nice (Riso-printed) card, some VERY cool little book-binders that were emoji, a bag and a swatch book, and a brand-new tube of blue ink! THESE are people who know how to build customer loyalty. They also answered a few questions via IG – and yes, they do sell new drums for the RZ220ui, still.
In the meantime, Craighton had enclosed a couple of his pieces he’d printed and gave me some very kind encouragement on my design work. He’s an industrial designer and illustrator among other things, and his work kind of refocused me. I decided to take a more conservative tack, and design the brochure as a little booklet using a more minimalist approach. It’s pretty typical of what you see a lot of people doing with the Riso.
So yeah, some interesting lessons learned.
First off, the event I’d been needed a brochure for had passed, so there was no time pressure anymore. I could just chill and mess around, and the Riso liked that.
Second, the ink doesn’t really dry in any reasonable timeframe. If you cover large areas with heavy ink, especially several layers of different colors, it’s going to track on the rollers, period. An easy way to avoid that is to place heavy ink areas away from the 2″ centerline of the design. I’m not sure how page size affects that – a bigger page with a smaller image might solve it as well.
Third, and more of a design-process observation, one that I learned a few decades ago, repeated constantly when teaching photography and seemed to forget myself, when learning a new process, start with basics. Cue Homer Simpson: “d-OH!”
I’m really looking forward to more involvement in the Riso community – whether it’s to throw in my bit of tech advice (the drum body screws are M3 6mm stainless – the good ones that resist corrosion, for what that’s worth…) or just to lurk and try out new papers and stuff. A handful of people have approached me about RisoSource and Mr. Interdonati, and the post has been read a number of times, so I feel like I’m doing my part to weed out the trash in the community. More than that, though, I feel like me and my Riso are working out a nice, productive relationship.
I do whatever it demands, it does kind of what I’d like it to.
Good ’nuff!
Plans for the future? I’d like to clean up the Yellow drum a little more – there’s still some black coming through, but I don’t think it’s a pressing issue. Hallagans sent me Blue, and the ink I have is Medium Blue – a little more violet than the Blue – but I like it better so I’ll be switching that drum to Blue. I think the Kelley Green drum should go to a nicer green – I’m not much a fan of that shade, so I’ll be pushing that more to the teal side at some point. The Bright Red is fine.
The paper question is a endless path of exploration… I’ve always said paper choice is like picking wine, and my highest praise for both is “yummy”. My local art supply store, Artist and Craftsman Supply has a great selection of papers that print nicely with the Riso, so I stop over there with about the same frequency as my local wine place.
They’re also mildly amused by my Riso antics, so that’s fun too.
So yup, karma can be a bitch, but it can also be a wonderful thing… hope y’all have a great holiday season, whatever you celebrate, and we’ll see you when the warmth starts to return to the cold, hard ground!
Happy Risoing!
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