Did the first duotone example of this with a friend straight from an A4 sheet in Clip Studio Paint :] it ain't much but it's honest work and makes me really happy because since it DOES work, the implications are great :3
Ghetto screenprinting proof using risograph rolls and an A4 thermal printer on cheap ass 110lb cardstock and cheaper ass hobby acrylic paint. I think i will use this technique to post yuri around my city
Art example used not mine. It's by @whoismonday.bsky.social i just used it on a whim for a proof i love her art follow her. Yeah
P.S. -- as far as what 'typing' on a stencil means, so most text work that you'd make copies of was done using a typewriter if not by hand. (dot matrix printers also work for this)
How you'd do this is that on nearly all manual typewriters, you can toggle from one color to a second (usually red, if that was on your ribbon) with a dedicated lever, but there was also a dedicated middle slot you could set it in that didn't use the ink ribbon and instead just slammed the keys directly onto your stencil paper -- this would remove the waxy coating so that you would get a stencil for a document you could reproduce!
@[email protected] asked
What is "mimeography"?I'm glad you asked! This is my shit :]
Mimeography is essentially a form of making copies of something before printers, done using a stencil, metal drum, ink pad, and other parts but those are the fundamentals. (Besides Xeroxgraphy and Dry Transfer it is the last form of copymaking before digital. It is a successor to hectography, but I won't get into all this stuff)
How it works is you have a hollow and smooth metal cylinder (usually also porous with holes punched into the side of the cylinder) that you adhere a fabric pad onto the side to hold ink (either with a reservoir you fill up or a brush, manually). You adhere a special paper stencil (that is waxy on one side and not on the other) onto that setup from which the ink will selectively come out of depending on where you etch / type / cut / etc off wax from it, so that ink will come out of the unwaxed areas.
This stencil-pad-drum setup is usually hoisted onto a paper bed, series of rollers, and crank, which when you turn, feed paper from its bed through the rollers and past the drum which will also rotate and impress an image onto the paper as it passes through the other end.
Mimeograph machines (which i'll call MMs, which coincidentally enough happens to be my initials) range from a bit more complicated 'tower' models such as Gestetner brand to ones that use alcohol/spirit solvents to create copies known as Spirit Duplicators in tandem to ink to create copies (which, usually were found in churches, government, schools, for their relatively fast duplication of say, tests, bulletins, leaflets, etc.). The latter are famous with Gen X, as a classic solvent mixture from Spirit Duplicators had a pleasant flowery smell from their freshly printed homework assignments (which was actually carcinogenic! so that was phased out over the years).
MMs are generally considered obsolete antiques now, but still actually exist, having evolved into / providing the fundamental process of 'Digital Duplicators' such as Risograph duplicators. These also were mostly found in settings where copies at a fast, industrial level were needed and still are used in those contexts -- but this is where artists like me come in! The unique grainy imperfections of more/less ink and slightly on or off alignment of the image you want per each copy (inherent to mimeography) is beloved amongst graphic designers, cartoonists, zine publishers, printmakers, etc. (which i guess i am all of, if i would just upload my shit lol)
They are best described as when a MM and thermal printer have a giant unwieldly baby, as the thermal head inside fax machines and thermal printers can be used to burn stencil designs onto the special stencil paper -- a process that alongside the mimeographing happens all in one machine!
I actually bought my own MM (A no. 78 from AB Dick Company, it's from the 1900s, not the century, the decade, this thing is OLD but in great condition!) that i've been working on restoring and retrofitting to breathe some new life into so I can use it for printmaking at home (since Risos are prohibitively expensive maintenance and upfront-wise for a single person). I will post my progress on it! It is something i've been excited for a while but haven't posted much about online.
You can even replicate this technology at home with a paint drum, flannel, and ink!
https://youtu.be/eo06ZRXbgao (start at 12:27)
(If nothing else, I hope these gifs from athleticsnyc and isitzen respectively visualize how they work :3 )
To properly see this ask, check the post in the original instance
CW: abstracted blood and eyes
Here is more of my reposted art. this was a little sketch from earlier this year on bsky i am still super hyped about -- i screenprinted this ugly thing on construction piece using a fax machine, of all things, to make the stencil! well, the brother (sister) fax-575 (she is transfem) ate up a lot more of the riso stencil than i wanted, giving it a crude look, but its an exciting home printing proof of concept that isn't too new. I love ghettomimeo so much
it was the same equipment i used to make this piece, 'Birthday Girl'. It's called Birthday Girl? I guess it is now. I will be potentially disassembling my fax 😳 since its not in its best shape after Birthday Girl, to see if i can salvage the thermal print head and use it as a 'thermal wand' of some sorts to freely image anywhere with an outlet.
Cross posting from tumblr on wafrn bc tumblr is a bitch that is not on the fediverse yet and I don't know if i can retroactively post from bluesky. anyhow here is some transgender ass art
i made this with a fax machine to 'ink' the pencil drawing i did, fed through the copier section onto cardstock. it fucked up the fax machine but it was worth it. enjoy genders
Printed, produced and published in 2023 — thanks to all contributors, collaborators and authors!
https://www.psw.gallery/shop
ToCall No.17 comes with Hope
Hope that we are able to solve all these crises – especially the climate crisis that threatens life on earth.
This issue is featuring works by 20 artists and poets. It is the first time that there were more submissions from women than from men. What could that mean?
The one-word poem on the cover is made by psw.
The magazine is printed with my mimeograph duplicators.
Mimeo printed edition of 100 copies.
Mel Magdalene
psw
psw