I am on my way back to UK after a long summer of travelling, exploring Scandinavian nature and learning German in Berlin.
While investing what is left of my little grey cells in the excruciating task of memorizing German perfect tenses, I decided to use my time to experiment with Riso printing and acrylic laser cutting.
My starting point was a papercut poster I created earlier this spring: a world of floating marine creatures, inspired by nature and transformed into a fluid system of interconnected characters organized in concentric bands, closer to the surface or at the bottom of the sea, depending on their natural habitat.
A detail of the final poster on blue paper stock
The papercut poster on white paper stock
The cutting process
Checking the pattern against a light source
The poster was later developed into a vertical concertina book: I deepened my research into the most grotesque creatures living in the bottom of the Ocean and placed them in a folded vertical landscape.
The papercut book
The papercut book, detail
So, this is where I started from when I decided to work with Riso Print, a printing technique invented in Japan (clever people) that works more or less like screen printing: the image file is burnt onto a master, wrapped around a ink drum. The cylinder then rotates and the speed pushes the ink through the screen onto the paper. The technique is automated but the result is full of those imperfections that make a work so alive.
Riso Print proofs
I printed and hand assembled a limited edition of my concertina book and also a series of postcards with some of my favourite characters.
Here are some images of the final work, soon available from my webshop and from www.drucken3000.de
lindatoigo 