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  • Ironing the Wax out of a Batik

    Ironing the Wax out of a Batik

    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"
  • Meet the Maker: Ian Mowforth

    Meet the Maker: Ian Mowforth

    I am a painter and printmaker. I have experimented with pretty much every type of material and process over the years. I always return to painting and printing though. Describe your printmaking process. I am usually a Lino artist. I have returned to etching and lithography this year too. I love the immediacy of Lino. … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Ian Mowforth"
  • Halloween Printing with Night Glo Acrylic Ink!

    Halloween Printing with Night Glo Acrylic Ink!

    If you’re a Halloween lover this project is for you! We’ve had a go with Speedball’s Acrylic Night Glo Ink and made our own glow in the dark Halloween poster. This ink really gives your prints a twist – it would be great for children’s (or adults’!) bedrooms too. This project uses paper stencils to …
  • Meet the Maker: Basil and Ford

    Meet the Maker: Basil and Ford

    We are a husband and wife screen printing duo. We met at university where we were both studying Art & Design. In 2011 we got engaged and started the hunt for wedding stationery. We couldn’t find what we wanted without a huge price tag so we ended up hand screen printing them ourselves and we … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Basil and Ford"
  • Screen Printing Hand Drawings using Film Marker Pens

    Screen Printing Hand Drawings using Film Marker Pens

    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…
  • Meet the Maker: Rob Barnes

    Meet the Maker: Rob Barnes

    I studied painting and printmaking at Hull College of Art and London University in the early 1960s. I taught etching, screen-printing, linocut and related surface printmaking at Keswick Hall College in Norfolk. Later I moved to the University of East Anglia where I continued teaching in the School of Education until 2006. I am based … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Rob Barnes"
  • Caring for an Exposed Screen

    Caring for an Exposed Screen

    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 …
  • Meet the Maker – Marian Haf

    Meet the Maker – Marian Haf

    I’m Marian and in short I’m a Mother of three, allotment neglecter and printmaker, I live in my native West Wales on the side of a hill in Ceredigion. I dabble with screen printing, wood cuts the odd bit of lino but collagraphs are my thing.    Describe your printmaking process. I’m a real night … Continue reading "Meet the Maker – Marian Haf"
  • Jigsaw Linocut with a Rainbow Roll

    Jigsaw Linocut with a Rainbow Roll

    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 …
  • Meet the Maker: Bailey Schmidt

    Meet the Maker: Bailey Schmidt

    I’m Bailey, the artist behind Young Schmidt Prints. I’m American but living in the UK with my husband and our two dogs, Murph and Eddie. I consider myself an illustrator and printmaker, but most of my days right now are filled with botanical-inspired linocut prints. I absolutely love houseplants and greenery, and my art very … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Bailey Schmidt"
  • Screen Printing Hand Drawn Designs with Grain Mark Screen Film

    Screen Printing Hand Drawn Designs with Grain Mark Screen Film

    We often talk about creating digital images to make exposed screens but there are a lot of ways to use hand drawn designs that bypass the need for computers at all – hooray! Grain Mark Screen Film allows you to draw directly onto a screen film whilst maintaining all your lovely textural marks. Charcoal and … Continue reading "Screen Printing Hand Drawn Designs with Grain Mark Screen Film"
  • Meet the Maker: Gail Brodholt

    Meet the Maker: Gail Brodholt

    I am a painter and printmaker based in London. Describe your printmaking process. I am mainly a linocut printmaker. I enjoy the straightforward process of cutting and printing a piece of lino as there is very little complicated procedures as there are in older forms of printmaking such as etching and lithography for example. You … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Gail Brodholt"
  • What’s a Halftone? Screen Printing a Tonal Image

    What’s a Halftone? Screen Printing a Tonal Image

    People often want to screen print photographic images and hope to use black and white photographs for this. To do this you need an exposed screen. The way screen printing works is the mesh either has to be open or closed (ink passes through the open areas but cannot pass through the closed areas) therefore …
  • Meet the Maker: John Bloor

    Meet the Maker: John Bloor

    I am John Bloor, part time print maker and part time graphic designer. The amount of time I get to spend on each depends entirely on whether I have work or not! Describe your printmaking process I always start by sketching in my book and at some point move onto the computer to develop the … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: John Bloor"
  • Making a Carborundum Gel Plate

    Making a Carborundum Gel Plate

    Akua Carbundum Platemaking Gel is a great new product that allows you to make high contrasted, textured intaglio plates. The gel can be screen printed onto a plate and printed with Akua Intaglio Inks. Drypoint Plastic makes a perfect plate with a wipe-clean surface.   To make our own Caborundum Gel plate we used an … Continue reading "Making a Carborundum Gel Plate"
  • Meet the Maker: Maria Doyle

    Meet the Maker: Maria Doyle

    I’m a printmaker based in Edinburgh. I took up linocut as a hobby two years ago but it has grown arms and legs and is now my mini business. Describe your printmaking process. I mostly create architectural prints of the places I have lived in or visited. In a way it’s my diary! I work … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Maria Doyle"
  • Screen Printing a Graphite Drawing

    Screen Printing a Graphite Drawing

    When we think of screen printed artwork we tend to see bold areas of bright colour and graphic lines but there are lots of different styles that can be achieved. By using graphite directly onto the mesh of a screen we can create loose, printed sketches that can be used for layering or as prints … Continue reading "Screen Printing a Graphite Drawing"
  • Meet the Maker: Frans Wesselman

    Meet the Maker: Frans Wesselman

    Describe your printmaking process.  I do several things: I make etchings, where I concentrate on people’s expressions and the quality of the etched line and texture; I also make wood cuts, which are rather larger and where I exploit the areas of flat colour and the strong wood cut line; and in the past I … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Frans Wesselman"
  • How Much Detail on Exposed Screens?

    How Much Detail on Exposed Screens?

    When designing artwork for exposed screens it can be very difficult to figure out what level of detail you can include. Different mesh counts will be able to handle different levels of detail. The mesh number relates to how many threads there are per cm of mesh: 32T has 32 threads per cm, 120T has …
  • Oxmarket Exhibition

    Oxmarket Exhibition

    We are very pleased to be showing a great selection of work currently at the Oxmarket in Chichester! This exhibition showcases local art workshops including Artworks Studio, Jo Dowers and Handprinted. We’ve gathered together works by our staff, guest workshop tutors and studio users to showcase some of the techniques that take place in the … Continue reading "Oxmarket Exhibition"