Adventures in Printmaking: Linoleum Block Printing

Soon to come is a very step-by-step look at linoleum block printing, but for the time being, I wanted to write a bit about my very first experience with this method.

(Actually, this was my second experience, my first being a month or so ago when I worked with linoleum with one of my students. That lino was extremely soft and easy to carve, and therefore a COMPLETELY different experience than this "real" first try...but I digress).

Our printmaking teacher asked us to pick a design, and I immediately reached for my kitchenaid stand mixer printout. I had been waiting to use this one, and my teacher "hmmm"ed over it, and then nodded. "It's very graphic. It will work well for this." Yessssss!

After transferring our designs onto the lino block using a graphite-transfer method (again, more to come too), we jumped in with our carving tools, these incredibly awesome Speedball-brand tools that have various carving tips that you can take on and off the end, depending on what kinds of cuts you want to make in the lino. I took a deep breath, and dug it. I placed the tip of the tool to the lino on one of the outlines of my stand mixer, and pushed it forward, slowly, with great control, being careful not to get my hand in the way of the tool and gouge my palm...and it slipped.

First cut, it slipped.

I used one of my school-friendly swears -- "F!" -- and started again, struggling with the ridiculously stiff linoleum.

By the end of the three-hour class, I had approximately 60% of my design carved, a cramped hand, and a frustration so immense it threatened to eat my soul.

"Oh!" pipes up George, the slightly sarcastic and disorganized but delightful teacher. "I forgot a trick! Where's the hot plate?" He looks around, can't find it, and then tells us, "Well, anyway, if you use an iron on low, it will make the linoleum soft, and easier to cut."

Bingo.

I went home last weekend, and finish the project, and then printed it in the studio the following Monday. The first print was beautiful:

I decided that the bowl was a little busy, so I went back at the lino block with my tools, and carved away some of the shading. After printing the re-done block, I decided to add some color -- not an easy process, due to the opacity of the lino block! With some forms of print-making, your inked surface is a clear piece of plexi-glass, so lining up layers of ink is pretty easy and, well, visible -- not so in this case. I ended up experimenting (and I'm not done experimenting yet!), and came up with this:

I'm not 100% thrilled with the way the red sits on the original print, and I'm going to do some water-color painting on other test prints, but overall, I like where this is going.

Constant revision is the name of the game, I guess!