: introducing "AVA The Risograph" ::
Riso Training for Sex Worker Rights Activists
Tuesday Oct 1st - 6pm - 7.30pm FREE
@ Common House / Unit 5E Pundersons Gardens Bethnal Green

about a year ago the x:talk project received a funding grant. as result we
were able to purchase a RISO RP3500, which we have affectionately called
AVA the Riso*. As both a contribution to supporting radical politics in
London and a desire to create open processes of organising, printing and
building collective power we have made Ava available for radical groups,
people and projects to use with a desire to bring together groups across
London so as to be able to print radical leaflets, stickers, books, zines,
posters and other materials.

The Ava Riso machine is a stencil press - What is stencil printing you
ask? Stencil printing has a unique and beautiful quality. It?s not screen
printing or offset printing ~ it?s stencil printing and it prints with
paints!

COSTS:
If you want to use Ava the Riso you need to get along to a training
session - we are not running a printing service, but instead facilitating
a collective resource. The next training session is Tuesday October 1st at 6.00pm

Printing on Ava is very cheap - it costs 1p each time the piece of paper
goes through the machine and 60p for each master you create. So for
example if you print 1000 leaflets and print them two colour (each colour
gets printed separately) the total cost = ?21.20. If you only did one
colour it would be ?10.60 etc. The money raised goes into the xtalk bank
account - to buy more ink and master rolls. We can let you now how much a
job will cost before you print it.

BOOKING IN TO USE AVA THE RISO
You need to email bookings@commonhouse.org.uk to book in to use Ava - this
is so we can arrange times that does not clash with other meeting and
event bookings.

What is so special about the RISO RP3500?
It?s a stencil press, which is a high-tech version of the old mimeograph
machines that people used before photocopiers. Basically, when you send
information to the printer it makes up a stencil somewhat reminiscent of a
silkscreen. Then, as the drum turns, it squeezes ink through the screen
and makes an impression on the paper. We have 7 different colours to mix
and match, and the machine can handle an amazing array of papers, from
newsprint to box board.

* Who is Ava Caradonna
We do not wish to participate in a politics that creates individual
?celebrity? superstars. As a result we use the collective identity of Ava
Caradonna (which roughly translates to ?Eve the Good Woman?). Ava
Caradonna is a migrant, a sex worker, a student, a mother, a citizen, a
transgender, a person of colour, a teacher, a lesbian and a militant. She
allows us to speak from different positions as sex workers and as allies,
without the stigma of using our ?real? names and allows us to speak to the
different realities in the sex industry and beyond.