adventures in linocut printing

despite the fact that i repair prints all the time, i never really did much printmaking when i was younger, and in recent years i’ve been occasionally making linocuts- either for an upcoming craft show or a group project. it doesn’t take fancy equipment, i can produce them fairly quickly, and the concept of carving in relief seems a good exercise for my brain. i learn a slew of new things every time i try to do this.

for the past few years i’ve participated in a valentine’s print exchange for my local chapter of the guild of book workers. sometimes there is a theme, and this year’s was “romantic cities”. under pressure for time (ever the procrastinator when it comes to creativity), i decided a linocut would be easiest since i already had most of the materials i needed in the studio. i resolved to spend some time across several winter evenings making sketches in order to decide which i liked best for getting my head back into linocutting. i was after a recognizable scene that would fit the theme but not be too complicated or overly time-consuming. this was, after all, a mail exchange.

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i chose venice from my sketched cityscapes and set about transferring the drawing to my linoleum, then began carving. i made my first test print on some sumi paper, did some more carving and tweaking on my block, and then made some more test prints. i realized i needed a new brayer, as the one i had been using was a vintage tool i’d picked up years ago at a studio sale, and i was having some trouble with getting it to move correctly and roll the ink on evenly. it was wonky and i was getting frustrated. once the new one came in it made a huge difference in how the prints were turning out. better tool, better result, right?

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at this point i’d also learned a couple of other things. one: in the future i’ll carve on pieces of linoleum that aren’t mounted. since i’m printing by hand and not on a press, that will make both carving and clean-up easier for me. but for this project, i already had this untouched linoleum block sitting in a box and was trying to save my pennies! two: use better ink. since i’m a beginner, and under the deadline i had no time to purchase and play around with new inks, i ended up using my small supply of water-based speedball inks i’d purchased with some basic tools many moons ago. those inks aren’t suitable for being serious about a project and i couldn’t get them to act quite right (from what i’ve read, that’s a universal opinion). just like an improved brayer, i know improved inks will make all the difference.

in my mind this was a night scene, which dictated the manner in which i carved the block, as well as my paper choice. I settled on a lovely blue kozo paper for the small edition of prints that would include the ones i was mailing to participants, but i couldn’t resist trying a gold paper too. i liked its warmth and shimmer.

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i learned during and after printing that i need to practice better registration and also pay more attention to my desired margins, and therefore the size of my linoleum, especially when the project has size limitations like this one! i would have liked bigger margins.

i’ve saved the block, as i do all of them, so i can print another run of a different color in the future, or modify the block for a variation. if that never happens though, i enjoy the blocks as artifacts of process. i’m thinking of continuing the theme and carving another of my city sketches, perhaps new orleans.

funny thing with this exchange, i thought everyone would choose a city like paris. turns out several of us thought of venice!

remaining prints of both these editions will be for sale. until i have a shop set up, please inquire if you’d like one, or look for me at a future market. happy romancing!

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