The Riso Apprentice - The Last Installment

Hello! Thanks for coming back to the final blog post for my internship at Riso Pop. I am actually now back in Scotland. I left the Netherland on the 30th of November (almost 5 months ago! yikes!). So, it was great to come home to the highlands of Scotland - but boy, do I really miss living in Amsterdam.

Today we are launching the final showcase video for the RISO3D exhibition, so we thought it’s about time that we wrap up the RISO3D story and tell you all about what we managed to accomplish since our last blog post. 

Building up to the finale

On the 8th of November, we closed the submissions for the RISO3D Community installation. We were overjoyed with the number of designs that had been collected, with over 50 people from 12 different countries. Each design was so unique, with a wide variety of the colour selections, template choices and material uses. The next step was to get printing!

It was a pleasure to print the work and share the process online via our Instagram Live Events. It really started to feel like a community operation as the participants shared their work with their friends, asked questions during the Instagram Live events and became immersed in the printing process from their homes.

Personally, I also rediscovered the magic of riso printing and, became a firm fan of printing other people's work. In the past, when I have worked on my own prints, I tend to know what the outcome will look like. However, when I print other people's work, it fills me with so much excitement as the final print is often a pleasant surprise when it shoots out of the machine.

Once the work was all printed, me and Aafke shipped out of the Riso Pop Studio and moved into our exhibition space at De Bouwput where we set up the installation all week.

We took all of the printed submissions to the space where we cut and folded them - then we strung them up to make our 3D Riso galaxy! It was such a magical experience and luckily it all went pretty smoothly. We had some great helping hands too, including JJ Wilson, the gallery manager. We had a fun-filled opening night on Instagram live which you can still watch now over on the Riso Pop Instagram. Plus! At the last minute, restrictions in the Netherlands were lifted and we could allow 30 people to come on our opening day at the weekend.

The Final Showcase

We had big plans to release the documentation of the project back in January, after the Holidays, but due to unforeseen circumstances, our videographer was unable to finish the work. So only a few weeks ago, we managed to get our hands on the footage and put something together for you to finally see. 

We hope that you enjoy the final documentation of the project as much as we do. For us, it brings back lovely memories of connecting an incredible community of artists in the middle of a global struggle.

Below you can watch the 360-degree video of the exhibition and the Showcase video, filmed by Nina Miege and edited by Alice Prentice. Plus some beautiful photos from the open day by Katharina Siegel.

What have I learned?

Like in my previous blog post I thought I would share a little bit about what I learned during my time at Riso Pop

Am I an expert now?

One of my most valuable lessons since working on this project is to improve my ability to explain things. In some ways, I forget that I am now very knowledgeable in subjects like Riso Printing, and I need to remember that not everybody knows what I’m talking about. I’ve learnt that it’s valuable to practise explaining things in order to pitch ideas or to avoid confusion. Breaking things down to the simplest of forms is very important and remembering to always be patient.

Connecting people = Joy

It has truly been a wonderful experience to connect people during these challenging times. I am so pleased that people have reacted to this wholeheartedly and were so genuinely excited to be involved. If you can, I recommend seeking out creative ways to keep in touch with people over the coming year. It can be challenging to think outside the box but the pay off is so worth it!

It’s not the end of our little worlds…

If you love the look of our final installation and you want to have your own little RISO3D exhibition in your home or studio - why not purchase our Planetary package now. We will send you a package with five of the exclusive designs from the exhibition so that you can hang them up and make your very own installation at home! We’d be so grateful for your purchase and, by doing so you’ll be supporting the Riso Pop studio for future projects and workshops.

Last words

I’d like to finally say a huge thank you to everyone who took part in the project. Everyone from those of you who submitted work, shared the story, came along to our online events, visited the exhibition or just cheered us along. It was a completely unique experience and I’ve met so many new friends along the way.

And of course, a massive thank you to my mentor and dear friend Aafke, I could never have done it all without you. We did it!