Blog - Tutorials

Brusho is a fantastic dye to have in your creative kit. They come in little pots of watercolour crystals in a huge range of highly-pigmented colours. They can be used on lots of different surfaces but we especially like to use them on fabric. They’re not fixable on cloth so aren’t suitable for projects that … Continue reading "Brusho Dye Resist Painting"

When printing with intaglio methods (etching, drypoint, collagraph etc.), it’s important to print onto dampened paper. Imagine you’ve just inked up your plate, your paper is soaking in a tray of water or in a stack and it’s time to print. You wash your hands but there’s still a little inky grubbiness in your fingerprints … Continue reading "Make Your Own Paper Fingers"

Your printmaking doesn’t have to be tethered to a studio or kitchen table. This project takes you outside to gather and enjoy the natural materials around you! Go for a walk around the garden, your road or even just your house and collect a few leaves with different shapes and textures. Use a tray or … Continue reading "Printing with Leaves"

Viscosity printing is a process that uses different viscosities (stickiness) of ink to enable you to ink up a plate with more than one colour – the different viscosities of ink will not mix. The foundations of this method can be used to create monotypes where a greasy medium can be used to resist ink. … Continue reading "Viscosity Monotype at Home"

Intaglio printmaking is a printmaking method using marks incised into a plate. Ink is worked into the recesses of the plate and is usually printed onto dampened paper through an etching press. Intaglio printmaking can create strong positive marks, interesting texture and tone – these results shouldn’t be missed out on if you don’t have … Continue reading "Printing Intaglio Without a Press: Tetra Pak Collagraph"

There are lots of different blocks available to make your own stamps. Unlike linocut blocks, stamp blocks are designed to be cut into smaller shaped pieces. We have tested four of our blocks to help you decide which is the best block for your project and budget:Pink Speedy Carve, white Mastercut, blue Speedy Carve Easy … Continue reading "Printing with Different Stamping Blocks"

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"

This is a really quick, easy and inexpensive way to change the look of your indoor potted plants. Create a streamlined paper cover printed with your own design. Read on for full instructions or scroll to the bottom for a video of the whole process. You will need a large piece of stiff paper or … Continue reading "Block Printed Plant Pot Cover"

Use vegetables to print name place cards and gift tags. This quick, easy Christmas make is a perfect way to get the kids involved! Raid your fridge and grab a few veggies for this quick printing project. Carefully slice your chosen vegetables in half (adults only please!) Cutting them through the root or stem should … Continue reading "Christmas Veg Printed Place Names & Tags"

Shirley’s star garland is a beautiful and colourful addition to your home this Christmas! Begin with several sheets of stars – print Shirley’s star template A4 page here. This long garland used 8 sheets of stars. Use whatever paper that can go through your printer – Shirley is using Kent which is thin enough to … Continue reading "Handprinted Christmas Project: Shirley’s Star Garland"

Every year we buy so much gift wrap that is only enjoyed for seconds before being thrown away. Bridget’s furoshiki fabric wrapping can be used over and over again and makes a great addition to a gift! Furoshiki is a beautiful Japanese way of wrapping parcels for gifts and travel. Use scraps of fabric leftover … Continue reading "Handprinted Christmas Project: Bridget’s Furoshiki Fabric Wrapping"

The quest for a more eco-friendly, less wasteful Christmas is a great opportunity to get more creative about the way we wrap our presents. These pretty gift bags use up old newspapers – no non-recyclable wrapping needed. So raid your recycling bin and read through the instructions below. In order to make these bags Christmassy, … Continue reading "Handprinted Christmas Project: Holly’s Stamped Newspaper Gift Bags"

This gorgeous DIY bauble will look amazing hanging from any tree! Use ink and paper to match your favourite Christmassy colours. Jez has opted for gold ink on black paper. Here’s how to make it: Print out our bauble template onto A4 paper – it can be downloaded here. We use using black paper for … Continue reading "Handprinted Christmas Project: Jez’s Printed Bauble"

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"

Kitchen lithography is a fantastic technique that draws from the principles of traditional lithography but uses items found in your kitchen along with just a few standard printmaking items! You can even use a baren to take the print so you can try this at home without a press. A piece of drypoint plastic works …

This is a fantastically quick way of printing a repeat pattern onto fabric. The block is so speedy to make, using a plastic inking plate and stick-back foam. We are using Permaset Aqua Metallic Textile Screen Printing Ink which works beautifully with a Textile Roller to print onto dark fabric. See the entire process in … Continue reading "Printing an Easy Repeat Pattern on Fabric with Permaset Metallic Ink"

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"