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Tjantings (or cantings) are beautiful Javanese tools for applying wax to cloth when making a batik. They have a long handle and a little copper or brass pot with a spout from which melted wax is let out. Read more
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Sgraffito is a fast batik technique in which positive marks are scratched into the surface of the wax and filled with ink. Use sgraffito in combination with other batik methods or make a speedy sgraffito batik like in the project below: Begin by pinning out your fabric. Pre-washed, 100% cotton works best – we use …
Continue reading "How to Make a Sgraffito Batik"
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This week’s blog post has been created with Sophie, our fantastic work experience student! Over this past week, I have been doing work experience. It has been an amazing opportunity and I have leant some great new skills. Yesterday I tried screen printing, I drew out my own designs which I used in three different …
Continue reading "Screen Printing onto Fabric with Translucent Colours"
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Mono-screen printing is a great way of loosening up your printing style and producing a series of quick, spontaneous prints. Use as a standalone technique or in conjunction with photographic exposed screens, paper stencils and more. We are using a screen that has been exposed using photo emulsion to leave an open rectangle of mesh …
Continue reading "Mono-Screen Printing"
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Gum Arabic Transfer (also called paper lithography) is a marvellously fast technique in which photographic images can be added to sketchbooks, paper or mixed media pieces. This is one of the techniques used by Sue Brown in her fantastic work. We were lucky enough to have Sue teach in our studio and hope to have her back soon! … Continue reading "Gum Arabic Transfer"
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One of the great things about printmaking is that one design can be used to create a whole edition of prints. That being said, editioning is something that some printmakers can find frustrating if you just want to get on with the next design! Knowing how to edition, sign and number your prints can be …
Continue reading "Editioning Prints"
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Reduction linocut is one of the printmaking methods favoured by Picasso. To make a reduction linocut we use only a single piece of lino. Layers of colour are printed on top of one another, each from the same block which is carved between each colour. A reduction linocut can be easier to register than a …
Continue reading "Making a Reduction Linocut"
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Indigo has been used to dye fabric in many cultures for centuries. Traditional Shibori folding techniques combined with indigo dye can create beautiful fabrics with intricate patterns with both subtle and bold shades of blue. Begin by preparing your dye vat. We are using an Indigo Dye Kit that includes all the ingredients for a …
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Colour mixing can become a very complicated topic. When printing, it is tempting to use colours straight from the tube as mixing the perfect shade can be a little daunting and result in a large quantity of unwanted murky brown ink. We wanted to create a few colour mixing guides to help printmakers build up …
Continue reading "Introduction to Colour Mixing: Caligo Process Colour Wheel"
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Relief printing is a technique in which the raised surface of a block or plate is inked up and printed when in contact with paper (or fabric etc.) A linocut is a relief printing method using carved lino. Any areas that are left uncarved will be inked up with a roller and printed. This project …
Continue reading "How to Carve and Print a Simple Linocut for Beginners"
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Cyanotype is an early photographic process that uses two solutions (Potassium Ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate) to create an image or ‘blueprint’. It was introduced by John Herschel in 1842 as a way to copy notes but was brought to the photographic world by Anna Atkins the following decade through her photograms of algae, seaweed, …
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There are many objects that can be gathered from around the house to add to your printmaking kit! Here are some of our favourite alternative uses for easily found objects that we use in the studio every day! Use clips on your hinged screen for an easy squeegee rest: Securing two large clips to your …
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Using a hinged board to screen print onto paper is a game changer. It allows you to register layered prints and print in identical editions. Here’s how we made our latest batch of A2 hinged boards in the studio: You will need a board at least the same width and slightly longer than your screen...
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Making your own inks for screen printing onto fabric is an economical way to get a wide range of colours exactly to your specifications. The mixed inks will leave the fabric soft and washable. Here’s how to mix them: Start with Fabric Screen Printing Binder. This is a colourless screen printing medium and will form the …
Continue reading "How to Mix Pigment and Binder to Screen Print onto Fabric"
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Having a fabric printing pad makes a huge difference when you’re printing at home or in the studio. When screen printing or block printing onto fabrics, it helps to have slight padding underneath your printing surface to ensure you get an even print. You can also pin out fabric to the pad. We use these …
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When transferring designs to a block, there are several factors to consider: can the design be seen on the block? Will it wash off? Will the design be transferred to the print? In this project, we test two different carbon papers on six different relief blocks. We test them with three types of ink: waterbased, water …
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Making a batik is the satisfying process of layering wax and dye to create bold, intricate designs. The more layers of dye and wax that are added, the thicker and stiffer the fabric will become. At the end of this process, you’re left with a hard, milky-looking piece of cloth. Here’s how to iron the …
Continue reading "Ironing the Wax out of a Batik"
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Translating drawings into print doesn’t have to include scanning and digitally manipulating your design on a computer. By using opaque film markers onto screen film we are able to skip the digital part altogether and create a photographic screen directly from the drawings you produce. This allows you to work in full scale, even tracing…
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It’s important to take care of your exposed screen so that it can last for multiple print runs. With proper care, you should be able to use your screen again and again until you’re ready to have it washed off and a new design exposed. Read on for a list of rules and advice …
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A rainbow roll is a great way to easily add a beautiful range of colours to a linocut. This project uses only two colours to create a range of shades, all in one printing layer. We are using the jigsaw linocut technique to give us areas of different colours. We want our background to be …
Tjantings (or cantings) are beautiful Javanese tools for applying wax to cloth when making a batik. They have a long handle and a little copper or brass pot with a spout from which melted wax is let out. Read more
Sgraffito is a fast batik technique in which positive marks are scratched into the surface of the wax and filled with ink. Use sgraffito in combination with other batik methods or make a speedy sgraffito batik like in the project below: Begin by pinning out your fabric. Pre-washed, 100% cotton works best – we use … Continue reading "How to Make a Sgraffito Batik"
This week’s blog post has been created with Sophie, our fantastic work experience student! Over this past week, I have been doing work experience. It has been an amazing opportunity and I have leant some great new skills. Yesterday I tried screen printing, I drew out my own designs which I used in three different … Continue reading "Screen Printing onto Fabric with Translucent Colours"
Mono-screen printing is a great way of loosening up your printing style and producing a series of quick, spontaneous prints. Use as a standalone technique or in conjunction with photographic exposed screens, paper stencils and more. We are using a screen that has been exposed using photo emulsion to leave an open rectangle of mesh … Continue reading "Mono-Screen Printing"
Gum Arabic Transfer (also called paper lithography) is a marvellously fast technique in which photographic images can be added to sketchbooks, paper or mixed media pieces. This is one of the techniques used by Sue Brown in her fantastic work. We were lucky enough to have Sue teach in our studio and hope to have her back soon! … Continue reading "Gum Arabic Transfer"
One of the great things about printmaking is that one design can be used to create a whole edition of prints. That being said, editioning is something that some printmakers can find frustrating if you just want to get on with the next design! Knowing how to edition, sign and number your prints can be … Continue reading "Editioning Prints"
Reduction linocut is one of the printmaking methods favoured by Picasso. To make a reduction linocut we use only a single piece of lino. Layers of colour are printed on top of one another, each from the same block which is carved between each colour. A reduction linocut can be easier to register than a … Continue reading "Making a Reduction Linocut"
Indigo has been used to dye fabric in many cultures for centuries. Traditional Shibori folding techniques combined with indigo dye can create beautiful fabrics with intricate patterns with both subtle and bold shades of blue. Begin by preparing your dye vat. We are using an Indigo Dye Kit that includes all the ingredients for a …
Colour mixing can become a very complicated topic. When printing, it is tempting to use colours straight from the tube as mixing the perfect shade can be a little daunting and result in a large quantity of unwanted murky brown ink. We wanted to create a few colour mixing guides to help printmakers build up … Continue reading "Introduction to Colour Mixing: Caligo Process Colour Wheel"
Relief printing is a technique in which the raised surface of a block or plate is inked up and printed when in contact with paper (or fabric etc.) A linocut is a relief printing method using carved lino. Any areas that are left uncarved will be inked up with a roller and printed. This project … Continue reading "How to Carve and Print a Simple Linocut for Beginners"
Cyanotype is an early photographic process that uses two solutions (Potassium Ferricyanide and Ferric Ammonium Citrate) to create an image or ‘blueprint’. It was introduced by John Herschel in 1842 as a way to copy notes but was brought to the photographic world by Anna Atkins the following decade through her photograms of algae, seaweed, …
There are many objects that can be gathered from around the house to add to your printmaking kit! Here are some of our favourite alternative uses for easily found objects that we use in the studio every day! Use clips on your hinged screen for an easy squeegee rest: Securing two large clips to your …
Using a hinged board to screen print onto paper is a game changer. It allows you to register layered prints and print in identical editions. Here’s how we made our latest batch of A2 hinged boards in the studio: You will need a board at least the same width and slightly longer than your screen...
Making your own inks for screen printing onto fabric is an economical way to get a wide range of colours exactly to your specifications. The mixed inks will leave the fabric soft and washable. Here’s how to mix them: Start with Fabric Screen Printing Binder. This is a colourless screen printing medium and will form the … Continue reading "How to Mix Pigment and Binder to Screen Print onto Fabric"
Having a fabric printing pad makes a huge difference when you’re printing at home or in the studio. When screen printing or block printing onto fabrics, it helps to have slight padding underneath your printing surface to ensure you get an even print. You can also pin out fabric to the pad. We use these …
When transferring designs to a block, there are several factors to consider: can the design be seen on the block? Will it wash off? Will the design be transferred to the print? In this project, we test two different carbon papers on six different relief blocks. We test them with three types of ink: waterbased, water …
Making a batik is the satisfying process of layering wax and dye to create bold, intricate designs. The more layers of dye and wax that are added, the thicker and stiffer the fabric will become. At the end of this process, you’re left with a hard, milky-looking piece of cloth. Here’s how to iron the … Continue reading "Ironing the Wax out of a Batik"
Translating drawings into print doesn’t have to include scanning and digitally manipulating your design on a computer. By using opaque film markers onto screen film we are able to skip the digital part altogether and create a photographic screen directly from the drawings you produce. This allows you to work in full scale, even tracing…
It’s important to take care of your exposed screen so that it can last for multiple print runs. With proper care, you should be able to use your screen again and again until you’re ready to have it washed off and a new design exposed. Read on for a list of rules and advice …
A rainbow roll is a great way to easily add a beautiful range of colours to a linocut. This project uses only two colours to create a range of shades, all in one printing layer. We are using the jigsaw linocut technique to give us areas of different colours. We want our background to be …
