Spectrolite app + Lots of new riso prints
Hello hello, ANEMONE pals~
First: a new thing in the world coming Friday — Spectrolite, the Mac desktop app that Adam and I have been building for doing Riso Printing more easily! Here’s the link to where you can download: anemone.es/spectrolite
You’ll be able to split your color images into RISO-fied, 1-color-per ink set of files for printing! And even though the app is for Mac, you can print the resulting files from the Windows driver to your RISO. Also, it’s free.
This is where you pick the inks you’re printing with, out of the huge set of RISO inks that are available.
If you haven’t printed before: Riso inks come in tubes like this, and riso is printed one-color at a time on drums with screenprint-like stencils wrapped around them.
What is coming on Friday is the ALPHA version of Spectrolite, which in software-building land means that it’s the just-barely-working-est version that we can send out in the world for people to try. It will be slow to riso-ify the images, it definitely won’t do everything that it would be nice to have, and it will have some bugs… but still fun hopefully!
Here’s where you see the palettes you’ve made out of your inks - in this example, I’ve made two CMYK-ish palettes (printing with 4 ink colors, one layer at a time) and a Bright Red + Yellow + Blue three color separation. (Look for Carly’s print that’s made that way below.)
Adam and I will send another update about that with a download link for the Spectrolite Mac .dmg on Friday (late afternoon Pacific time). In the meantime, if you’re curious, we made our working document public: http://bit.ly/spectrolite
100 Things Brochures (Free!)
There are FREE Brochures with ideas for 100 Things We Could Risograph Print Together at Soft Spot! They’re open 5-7 on Wednesdays, 12-2pm on Sundays, and sometimes other times announced on their instagram. Soft Spot is a half block north of Beacon Hill Station in Seattle.
You can also find a copy of the 100 things brochures at Common Area Maintenance in Belltown in Seattle. And if you’re getting this newsletter, live elsewhere & want a copy in the mail, I’ll send you some if you venmo me the postage! Just reply to this email.
Some Risographs we’ve printed lately
While we’ve been printing our own work and being total nerds about color theory for riso inks, we’ve also been collaborating with some Seattle artists to make prints of their work. Here are three that are out in the world now:
Polaroid by Isabela Garcia
A dreamy b&w Polariod by Isabela Garcia, scanned at high res, and risograph printed at 10x10” on thick cream paper. Available at Soft Spot, limited prints, $10. Also available via mail, to purchase contact @waxwitch on Instagram.
Carly Shilling’s buildings print
Carly Shilling’s gorgeous 10x10” three color riso print is available through her shop or via instagram DM @carlychilling. Oh man I love it.
The print is $20 and $10 of every purchase goes to The Okra Project, a collective that seeks to address the global crisis of violence by providing resources and meals to Black Trans people worldwide.
Tender Heart Issue 06
We printed up two inserts for Caitlin Edson’s Tender Heart Supper Club issue 06: “Honey Pie” by artist Emma Kates-Shaw (right), and the Pantry List, a design collaboration with Caitlyn Edson that includes the pantry staples and grocery items to cook through the recipes inside this issue. Mine is on my fridge!
Y’all… this is a delight of a zine (although it’s more of a mini-book — 80 pages of full color, perfect bound). Caitlyn is a talented writer and brings together the ideas (and pantries!) of so many amazing people in this issue. I was totally immersed in it when I read through the first time, and am looking forward to re-reading and also cooking through the recipes inside (with the help of the pantry list, yay!). Excited for a big jar of preserved lemons for the dark winter days.
You can get copies of Tender Heart Supper Club issue 06 by contacting Caitlyn on instagram @tenderheartsupperclub, by email tenderheartsupperclub @ gmail.com, or through the initial print-run funding site: https://www.gofundme.com/f/tender-heart-supper-club-issue-06.
Sew some All Well Studio Pants!
My collaborator Amy and I work on sewing patterns together (and ANEMONE is the publisher) — we just released a PANTS pattern, the All Well Studio Pants.
The Studio Pants are an easy-tapered ankle-length pant with two elastic waistband variations and optional patch pockets, for hip circumference 32” - 70” (81-178 cm). Maybe you’ve never sewn pants before! This pattern is appropriate for beginners and advanced sewists and everyone in between – with full adjustment and fitting instructions, along with detailed diagrams and all our most helpful sewing tips.
It’s also pay-what-you-can. It’s up to you whether you pay $0, $5, or $10 for the pattern – after a year like this one we wanted everyone to be able to sew some pants, regardless of budget or circumstance.
If you want to follow the artists & cool spots mentioned above on IG, here’s the list:
Ok, that’s it for now, ANEMONE friends. For all you riso printers who want to use Spectrolite and are excited enough to try using an early version of it, keep your eyes out for an email from us on Friday.
— Amelia Greenhall
P.S. - We also wrote about why we’ve been sending money democratic state level candidates and Adam has been writing a series on electrifying everything to address climate change.
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About ANEMONE:
ANEMONE is a collaboration and artist initiative by Amelia Greenhall and Adam Greenhall, based in Seattle. We work on a wide range of things: publishing, sewing pattern production, printing (risograph!), consulting, research, software development, design, mapmaking, and other projects in the studio.
https://anemone.es - IG: @anemone.es - Twitter: @anemone_es