I attended a two-part print workshop at Yuck Print House last month. Under the expert tutelage of John Powell-Jones (aka SAVWO), we were encouraged to explore the possibilities of paper stencil screen printing and risograph.

In the first session, we created the hand-cut paper stencils and screen printed up to two colours.

While the prints dried, our homework was to create artwork for the risograph machine (an environmentally friendly printer which uses soy-based ink and banana paper stencils).

I experimented with some Bauhaus inspired type and psychedelic op art for good measure. A Bob Ross quote seemed appropriate:

“We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents.”

Our second session was spent learning to operate the riso machine - printing two more colours on top of our screen prints.

It was a really fun learning experience and liberating to get creative without worrying too much about perfect results.

John's parting words to me were:

“I can't look at it. It hurts my eyes!”

I'll take that as a compliment.