SLICE Day! 05/17/2024
Last week we had our friends from SLICE and some new friends up in the studio for our first ever Risograph demonstration. This had been a long time coming, and it was a great time! Check out the gallery of some of the good times that we had and the fun prints that the attendees made!
There are more demonstrations to come, and more fun to be had! Check out the instagram @melonpressstl for the fastest updates.
DUPLICATOR MAGAZINE
Duplicator Magazine is finally here!!
Us here at Melon Press, have been working very hard this year to bring you the magazine that you all have been waiting for!
Duplicator Magazine is a fully risographed magazine that came from the idea of experimenting with different mediums on the Risograph creating entirely new categories of work. The 8 artists that are featured in Duplicator Magazine have been experimenting with pencil, fabric, fibers, paint and even dance to create brand new work.
Who are these artists you ask?
You will see the full magazine coming very soon but for now check out the artists and their work!
Preorders for Duplicator Magazine go live Friday 1/26.
Then, come pick up or check out the magazine in its entirety at Wildfruit Projects on March 2nd.
MZ WIZ
From January 10-January 21 Sofa Melon, the writer of this blog, was a resident artist at Directangle Press in Bethlehem, NH.
Don’t tell the GR, but using the Mz790 was a dream. The two drum action allowed me to see how easy life could be. LOL! I was very productive during this week printing the entirety of my book "When the Sun Fell to Earth” as well as another mini zine and prints too! It was a ton of fun hanging with Josh and Emily, Scoop, Watson, Rocky and Cinnamon in the studio while over 18 inches of snow fell. My resident buddy Grace Hagar and I kept warm by the fire and worked away during the week that we were staying in Bethlehem.
I worked on the two MZ790 machines that are located at Directangle Press with the incredible color selection that they have. There are some quirks between a one color machine and a two color machine, as the prints often don’t come out as you were expecting. The wet on wet ink action causes sections of the second layer to blend or not transfer at all. There is also a pencil setting on these machines that cause lighter graphite drawings to come out much more accurate than the GR machines can. I’m sure that playing with these machines can lead to some really interesting results, and I hope to be able to explore further.
GR MANUALS
GR MANUALS
These manuals have helped us SO much when learning how to read error codes and fix things.
So far the testing mode has been one of the most helpful parts. They allow you to diagnose the issues without having to get into the machine at all. Its pretty simple how they work, you turn on the machine wile holding the two top right buttons (MP+LP) and look up the part you want to test. The longer beeeeps means that it is not detected and the short beep beep beep beeps mean that it is detected. This is deceiving because not being detected does not mean it is broken! Each sensor is detecting the state, so no paper in the feeding area can drive you crazy!
The physical testing modes can help you even more when diagnosing your machine, because really figuring out why the hell your prints are not being made is about 95% of the headache. Starting at test mode 90 can help you with drum rotations, elevator motors and much more.
Note that there are some really fun preset prints in test modes 117-120 :)
It is worth it to try going through test modes whenever something doesn’t feel right. If I find any modes that really stick out as extremely helpful I will share!
There are two manuals attached below, the users guide which is a helpful basics on the workings of the machine, how to use parts and basic matenince advice. This helped me learn how to properly use the machine!
The second one is a BEAST of a technical manual that is….. 400 pages+! Seriously this manual teaches you to how to take apart the whole machine.