Friday, 31 May 2013

Lino Printing Fun...

Time for a crafty post!

Anyone who knows me well will know I'm pretty arty & love to learn a new craft. I tend to flit between lots of different disciplines - knitting, drawing, sewing, card making, cake decorating, inking, painting, jewellery making, photography...you name it, I've probably tried it. One thing I've been meaning to try for a really long time is lino printing - so I jumped at the chance when I saw my local (and favourite!) cake shop Fancy was holding an intro into lino printing workshop last night.

Run by local artist Scarlett Rebecca Tierney, the workshop was a chance to learn the basics of lino printing, and come away with a lino tile adorned with a design of your own, and some printed wooden brooches. It cost £25 for the course which ran from 7pm-10pm, and I had an absolute blast. It was really exciting to challenge myself to a completely new craft - and I found the whole printing process really addictive.

The process of course began with tea and cake (I defy anyone who can enter Fancy and be able to resist a giant slice of their amazing cake range!) And last night I opted for a slice of neapolitan cake...

Yum- the best artistic fuel known to man! :-)

Scarlett had asked us to come prepared with some sketches/ideas and so our first (and perhaps the hardest) job was to decide on a final design to print. Luckily, being on half term from work meant that I'd had a few hours in the day to sit down and sketch some ideas - my creative juices were flowing & I made my decision quite quickly. 

My final design was a sketch of an apron - apt due to my love of baking and my giant collection of pretty aprons...

my final design

I then traced the design on tracing paper, and transferred it to the lino rectangle by the tried and tested method of turning the tracing paper lead side down, and rubbing all over the back with the pencil :-)

This transferred my design on to the lino tile...

transferred to the lino tile and ready to cut! 

I then used a lino cutting tool to dig out my design - I had a practice on some old lino scraps to get a feel for it, but in essence you cut away whatever part you don't want to catch ink - for me that was the outline of my design. 

Once I was relatively happy with my design I rolled water-based ink over my lino, flipped it onto some paper, and used a heavy spoon to rub the print to ensure an even coating of ink on the paper. 

My first couple of prints to paper. 

I then used these prints to work out where my tile needed improving - more cutting away/a better shape etc. This enabled me to get a stronger final image to print onto my wooden brooch. 

a much neater final image print :-)

Lastly, I inked up my lino and this time printed directly onto a wooden disc - once dry I attached a brooch clip using super glue to the back and Ta dah...my brooch was born. 

I then repeated the process this time using the Twitter bird logo as my inspiration - and made a second brooch and sets of prints. Not bad for under three hours work. All credit goes to good teaching from Scarlett and a lovely atmosphere at Fancy!

Have you tried a new craft recently?

Mrs B 

xxx

For more information on Scarlett's workshops please visit her website or follow her on Twitter @scarlettrebecca