lino prints and stencil prints

In the last 2 weeks, in the fabric printing community class I teach, the students have been making lino prints...

and stencil prints...

house print

I made a small lino carving of 2 houses and tried printing it today.  I'm not happy with the result, but I might try carving houses again and see if I can improve the design.

 

box set edition

Every year at East London Printmakers, we make an edition of about 50 prints (42 this year), which we then divide into boxes with sets of one of each of the 42 members' prints in each box.  Here is how I made my edition of 50 prints...

 

 

I decided to make a linocut and print it at home.  I made a two-colour print - the background is a blend of red and yellow, and the foreground is a landscape of a churchyard (based on a photograph I'd taken).  The prints hanging in the window are test prints (not the final edition).

 

We just moved house in October, hence the stripped walls in the background of this photo.  I'm printing at the table and hanging the prints from a clothes horse to dry.

 

I printed the lino using a baren (a flat disc designed for printing by rubbing the back of paper on top of an inked block), but you could use a wooden spoon.  Two handy hints I learned from Nick Morley for printing with a baren: put some greaseproof paper under the baren to stop the paper from moving as you rub the back of it and also to prevent scuffing the paper with the baren; then, 'lock' your elbow to make a strong straight forearm to rub the print with pressure.  It's impossible to reproduce the effect of a press when transferring the ink by rubbing the back of the paper by hand, but I got some decent (though varied) prints among the edition of 50!

linocut greeting card

I taught a class last week on making greeting cards using linocut stamps.  I prepared an example by cutting out a traditional design from the copyright-free pattern book, 'Sarasa Woodblock Patterns', and carved it out of a small piece of lino then printed it by rolling ink on the block and pressing hard on the back of the stamp.