Community exists where we nurture it.
It thrives in the spaces where we are allowed time to explore, where conversation and collaboration are valued.
The perfect space for a community to grow is a creative one. A space where you can spend time making something new and bring an idea to life. Part of the reason for this lies in vulnerability. When you envision a project, an idea, or an artwork, you have a sense of how it should look and the ideas behind it. This is your creation, and until it is in the real world, it stays protected. When you start to actualise it, create a physical thing which others can engage with and comment on, you expose a part of yourself. A piece of your mind enters the world.
Within moments, your ideas emerge in other people’s minds; a new space is created. A space where your vulnerability can be reciprocated. Where people come together in a buzz of excitement because one idea has sparked another. In those moments, true connection forms.
This project explores some of the spaces where this communication flourishes. In conversation with six different print studios in Japan, we consider how their spaces are set up to facilitate this exploration and vulnerability and how, in turn, they act as spaces of community and connection.
Making work in these spaces allowed us to fully appreciate how each studio functions and gave us a true practical example of printmaking as a way to communicate beyond language. This project’s conclusion has come together as a film and two versions of the KIZUNA book: The special edition (orange cover), with prints created in each studio, and the standard edition (silver cover), with recreations of these artworks.
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 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.
Over the course of a month in Japan, we visited six studios.
We spent most of our time in Tokyo, where we explored HandSaw Press, Letterpress Letters, Print & Plant, and Surutoco. We also made trips to Kanazawa to visit Ishibiki Public Studio and to Osaka to spend time at JAM Print Studio.
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 were able to create our own screen prints using this technique.
In the other studios, our focus was on risograph printing, understanding each studio’s approach to this medium. We developed all of the designs for our prints throughout the trip, inspired by the places we visited and the details we noticed along the way.
KIZUNA - Film
35 minutes
Travelling to six print studios across Japan, the film looks at how each space creates opportunities for conversation, experimentation and shared making. Through interviews and time spent working in the studios, it considers printmaking as a way of bringing people together and communicating beyond language.
The film also documents the making of the Kizuna books, following the process of creating the book and the prints produced through the project.
KIZUNA - Books
Wire-bound book featuring risograph and digital printing, with a screen-printed cover.
This book explores how print studios support creative communities, and what it means to print alongside others. It brings together interviews with six print studios across Japan, alongside risograph-printed film photographs taken during the journey.
Each copy of the special edition (orange cover) also includes a print created in each of the six studios, bound into the pages of the book, making every copy a record of the journey and the people, places and processes encountered along the way. The standard edition (silver covers) includes recreations of these prints.
Launching 18th Sept 2026 at Glasgow Zine Library & 25th September at Edinburgh Printmakers!
We set out to explore the practices that create community across printmaking studios; throughout this project, we ourselves were nurtured by everyone we encountered.
We are very grateful to all of the studios who generously gave their time and expertise whilst showing us immense hospitality.
To everyone who supported us in translation, and to those whom we met in Japan who have now become dear friends, thank you for making our time so special.
A huge thank you to our families and friends for bearing with us over the course of this project; thank you for proofreading, reviewing the film and supporting us. A special mention to Neil Corall for giving his time, expertise and enthusiasm to help us get this project across the finish line.
We are incredibly thankful to the generous supporters of this project. We are so appreciative of every single person who supported the Crowdfunder that allowed us to make this project a reality. We also want to acknowledge Creative Scotland for their crucial match funding and encouragement of this work.
Thank you to Glasgow Zine Library and Edinburgh Printmakers for hosting the screening and launch events for this book and film project in September 2026.
As a true reflection of what it is about, this project has come together through the support of many people; it’s really the community that has made this happen. We hope that through this work, the unseen networks that hold up creative community can be appreciated.
A glimpse behind the scenes…
