Japan Studio Research Trip
COMMUNITY THROUGH PRINTMAKING
This project grew out of many chats between us – Carla Smith and Nicola Lyttle – about our shared love of printmaking and how far we could push the medium. We first met at Peacock and The Worm studio in Aberdeen, where we bonded over a shared curiosity for trying out new techniques, experiments that sometimes worked (and sometimes didn’t), and a shared belief that studio spaces are powerful places for creativity and connection.
Carla is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores moments of human connection. Her practice spans film, ceramics, bookmaking, and socially engaged art. During her year-long printmaking residency at Peacock and The Worm, she presented a solo exhibition that debuted her artist book Sugo — a celebration of printmaking created using risograph, etching, screen printing, and cyanotype. The book also reflects Carla’s ongoing interest in food as a way of bringing people together.
Nicola is a designer and printmaker specialising in risograph, fascinated by how this process sits between the analogue and digital worlds. Her degree show centred on the Scottish risograph community, resulting in a book that documented workshops and the creative energy sparked by this printing method’s resurgence.
Together, we decided to turn our focus to Tokyo – the birthplace of the risograph – to explore its creative hubs and the people who bring them to life. Building on Nicola’s earlier work documenting Scottish studios, our aim was to create both a film and a book capturing the atmosphere of Tokyo’s vibrant creative scene, whilst reflecting on how techniques and ideas can be shared between both Scotland and Japan.
With Carla’s skills in alternative documentary filmmaking and Nicola’s innovative approach to risograph, we set out to document these spaces in a way that felt playful, thoughtful, and true to the communities we visited. The end result – a film and book – is in its creation process, and we are very excited about how it is all shaping up!
Over the course of a month in Japan, we visited six studios. Most of our time was spent in Tokyo, where we explored Print & Plant, Letterpress Letters, HandSaw Press, and Surutoco. We also made trips to Kanazawa to visit Ishibiki Public Studio, and to Osaka to spend time at JAM Print Studio. Along the way, we managed to fit in short stops in Kyoto and Nara — taking time to absorb the atmosphere of each place, not just rushing from one studio to the next.
Each space had its own personality and focus. At JAM and Surutoco, we learned about Surimacca — a screen printing method developed by JAM that uses deconstructable frames. The process for preparing separations and stencils was incredibly streamlined, blending risograph principles with screen printing in a way we hadn’t seen before. We even got the chance to create our own screen prints using this technique.
In the other studios, our focus was on risograph printing. Designs for these prints were developed throughout the trip, inspired by the places we visited and the details we noticed along the way — a true in-the-moment reflection of our journey.
We’re hugely grateful to all the studios for their generosity, openness, and willingness to share their expertise. The next step is bringing everything together in a film and a book. This stage takes time as we continue to develop the work and secure funding — so if this project excites you and you’d like to support it (or know of a fund that could), we’d love to hear from you.
