"Barbara is an RC6300. Born in 1993, she's relatively old for a Risograph printing machine. She lived in a church basement in Beaverton until she was sold for $50 at an estate sale in 2013. A few years later, Barbara landed in the Kerns neighborhood at the Risograph print shop and studio Outlet-the shop's first, though Outlet founder Kate Bingaman-Burt has since added three Riso sisters to the family: Janet, Corita, and Lil' Tina."
"Think of a screenprinter combined with an office copier. Though originally designed as a bare-bones office printer, instead of business memos, syllabi, and church flyers, the machines are more often used by artists today. The Riso's rudimentary mechanics and ability to print a range of vibrant colors relatively cheaply make it an accessible alternative to more involved print-making processes like lithography, block printing, and silk-screening."
A 1993 RC6300 named Barbara moved from a church basement to an artist print shop and joined a family of named Riso machines with distinct personalities. Risograph printers are fussy and temperamental, prized for producing tactile, multidimensional prints that preserve pencil textures, watercolor washes, and fine details. Artists like Nia Musiba use Riso runs to translate paintings, colored-pencil work, and cut-paper art into prints, embracing unpredictability as a creative element. Riso machines operate with stencils and combine screenprinting sensibilities with office copier mechanics, offering inexpensive, vibrant-color alternatives to traditional printmaking methods.
Read at Portland Monthly
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