Artists, writers, zinesters and creative hobbyists are welcome to drop by The Fifty-Foot Press’ studio in East London for private, one-on-one riso printing sessions. No prior experience is required to have a go — if you’re a total novice, I will teach you all you might need to know about producing risograph prints; alternatively, if you’ve got significant past experience with a Riso duplicator and just need a machine you can use to fulfil a creative project, I’ll be as hands-off as you like.

Building community around riso printing and DIY publishing/art-making has always been at the heart of The Fifty-Foot Press’ mission. Enquiries surrounding collaborations and regular usage of the Press’ riso duplicator are absolutely welcome, and can be made by filling out the form at the foot of this page — though please do be aware that I currently run the Press single-handedly, in between managing an extensive creative research practice and a separate part-time job. Even if I feel it might be difficult for me to help fulfil your project, however, do drop me a line to open up a conversation about it, as even if I’m currently not in a position to embark on any major new printing or publishing collaborations, I can at least talk through your ideas with you as a friendly, constructively critical ear!

Alternatively, if you would like to support the Press’ work in other ways, do check out our online shop or donate to our Ko-fi page using the buttons at the door of this page.

£24/hour Technical Facilitation Fee — covers the cost of the assistance and technical support Abigail will provide throughout the printing process.

£3-6/Master — one master is required per colour used, per print run. One master can print pretty much infinite impressions, so whether you’re printing 5, 50 or 500 prints, you’ll never need more than one per colour. We charge for masters on a sliding scale with a £3 minimum, but if you want to pay more as a donation to the studio, you are very welcome to do so.

£0.03/Impression — This fee covers the ink used per impression, meaning that, for example, if your print requires two colours you will be charged 6p per completed print, or 9p if it requires three colours, et cetera.

£5+/Optional Solidarity Fee — Completely optional for anybody unless they are currently receiving funding from an arts grant body (such as Arts Council England) or a corporate donor. This fee allows me to take on marginalised and/or low-waged print clients, or to do certain print jobs in support of social justice activism and community organising, for free or for heavily discounted rates.

Paper:

• £0.03-0.04/A3 Clairefontaine Evercopy 80gsm sheet.

• £0.20-0.25/A3 Context Natural 170gsm sheet.

• £0.25-0.35/Custom Paper sheet (MUST be requested via email before session).

We’ll test all designs on sheets of 80gsm Clairefontaine Evercopy before printing your final designs on 170gsm Context Natural. Coloured papers of a similar weight are also available. If you’re looking to print single-colour, text-heavy interior pages of a zine or booklet, however, Evercopy will absolutely do the job. (It’s the paper Abigail uses on the interior pages of all of her zines, and for the covers of each edition of the Fifty-Foot Mail-Out!) So don’t feel pressured into needing to pay for more expensive papers if you feel your project may not need it!

I can order in custom paper stocks for these printing sessions, however it is imperative that you email me beforehand to let me know which papers you would like me to order in for you. Due to the turnaround time on orders, sessions will have to be arranged for at least 2 weeks after each custom paper stock has been ordered. I can provide a full list of papers I can order in on request. You are, of course, welcome to bring your own paper, so long as it is of A3 size, and so long as it is between 80 and 240gsm in weight.

I currently have Riso drums in six colours: Blue, Fluorescent Pink, Orange, Yellow, Teal, and Black. If you are interested in printing a full-colour art print, Pink, Yellow, Teal, and Black are rough equivalents for CMYK primary pigments on other forms of printing equipment. You can either split artworks up into their constituent colours for printing using downloadable Photoshop colour profiles linked here, or I can split them up prior to our session together.

All artwork files must be brought on the day via USB or sent via email to abigail@beanandqueer.com in advance of your printing session.

Abigail is also able to offer design services and consultancy for anybody who might need help making their printing project a reality, prior to attending a technician-supported riso printing session. Consultancy sessions allow for dialogue and skill-sharing to take place, empowering prospective print-makers and DIY publishers to acquire the knowledge they might need to produce projects independently going forward. Design services include assisting with graphic design, layout, pagination, or preparing artworks for printing.

Services are priced as follows:

£35-55/1-Hour Consultancy Session — covers the cost of a single consultancy session with Abigail, charged on a sliding scale. Sessions can be conducted either in-person or online via Zoom. Abigail is currently based in north-east London and is happy to conduct sessions from her print studio, however she is willing to travel elsewhere within London to conduct sessions at any other mutually agreeable site. Note that Abigail will only accept online consultancy sessions with clients outside of Transport for London fare zones 1-6, and may add a surcharge of £5-10 if attending a session in-person would require her to travel for upwards of 1 hour.

£300/day (£165/half-day) Designer Fee — covers the cost of one (half) day of design services