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When we first heard the news that Tetra Pak cartons could be used for printmaking, we were excited to try it out. We started to collect all the cartons we had at home and got ready to put them to a new use in the studio. Here’s a little project to get started using Tetra … Continue reading "Tetra Pak Drypoint and Collagraph Printing"

City of Gold by Gail Brodholt (image courtesy of Gail Brodholt) Last weekend Shirley took the Handprinted pop up shop to Printfest. Printfest is an annual print fair that takes place each year during the early May bank holiday in Ulverston in the Lake District.  This year saw 46 artists and one gallery take … Continue reading "Printfest 2018"

There are several waxes that can be used for making batiks, all of which will produce slightly different results. Standard Batik Wax is a blend of beeswax and paraffin wax but soya wax makes a good alternative. Soya wax is more sustainable, plant based, natural and petroleum free wax. Our soya wax comes from renewable…

My name is Amanda Colville. I’m a printmaker and artist from Kings Lynn in Norfolk. Describe your printmaking process. I mainly use linocut as a medium. However I also dabble in monoprint occasionally. How and where did you learn to print? I’ve always appreciated print and illustration, so decided to take a printmaking evening course … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Amanda Colville of Mangle Prints"

We’re very pleased to have a brand new roller available for block printing onto fabric! We love using screen printing inks to block print onto fabric as it creates fast-drying washable prints. Screen printing inks are too slippery for standard rollers so up until now we’ve liked using Sponge Rollers to print our fabrics. Sponge …

Hello! My name’s Mariko and I’m an illustrator and printmaker. I grew up in Hong Kong, went to school in London, travelled around for a bit, and have just moved from California to Tokyo, although I do still travel all the time. I work on commercial illustration commissions such as cookbooks, window displays and packaging, … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Mariko"

We are thrilled to have Cranfield’s new Traditional Relief Inks in stock. Cranfield make the hugely popular Caligo Safe Wash Inks. These new traditional relief inks are oil based, highly pigmented and come in a wide range of colours including gold and silver! We couldn’t wait to get our hands on that gold. Take a …

I’m a block printer working mainly with lino blocks, my work is largely inspired by nature & normally grows from our wonderful environment here in Cornwall.   How and where did you learn to print? I studied Illustration originally & while I didn’t necessarily do print as a specific medium in that study it is … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Lou Tonkin"

In last week’s blog post we began looking at which inks were suitable for screen printing onto dark fabrics. We used three different screen printing inks and looked at the difference between standard and opaque inks when printing with white. All of the white inks printed well onto the black fabric – white inks are…

Screen printing onto fabric tends to get a little complicated as soon as you want to print onto dark coloured fabrics. Standard screen printing inks are translucent and will therefore show some of the base colour through when printed. When printing onto white or pale coloured fabrics this is not a problem. Most standard screen … Continue reading "Screen Printing onto Dark Fabrics with White Ink"

Hello! I’m a printmaker living in Brighton. I came to printmaking relatively late as I trained and worked in the Health Service for 20 years before taking a break to do an Art Foundation which I enjoyed so much that I went on to do a Printmaking Degree and later an MA in Sequential Design … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Katrina Mayo of Dekko Press"

There are a large variety of different lino cutting tools with different shapes and sizes. The most common lino tools are V Tools and U Tools. U Tools carve softer lines with a curved end point and an even width but it can be harder to get control over the placement of your edges. V …

Hi, my names Kathy Hutton, I’m a printmaker working out of my home studio in Wiltshire where I live with my husband and 3 girls. In my work I combine many different printmaking techniques to produce my original one of a kind prints and I also run small group workshops teaching some of these techniques … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Kathy Hutton"

When it comes to screen printing there are so many ways to create your image. You can cut paper stencils, use Drawing Fluid and Filler, create exposed screens with hand drawn or computer drawn designs. Red Masking Film is a brilliant way of creating exposed screens. It’s transparent so can be used to trace over … Continue reading "Using Red Masking Film to Expose A Screen"

If you’re not already a reader of our Meet the Maker blog series, you should grab a cup of tea and work your way through these fantastic interview posts. We talk to printmakers and dyers every couple of weeks to find out how they make their work, where they get their inspiration and what advice … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: 2017 Round Up!"

Knowing which inks to use for which printing project can be a minefield. There are different inks for screen printing, relief printing and intaglio. Some can be used for more than one technique, some are only suited to one. Some can be used for printing onto fabric, some only for paper. We’ve created a chart … Continue reading "Which Inks Can I Use?"

Hi, my name is Fran Wood and I’m a London based designer specialising in screen printing. I work from home, which is a small flat in central north London, where I live with my partner and son. I have worked in studios as both a graphic designer and textile designer, as well as working in … Continue reading "Meet the Maker: Fran Wood"

Hello there! My name is Lucie Summers, I’m a printmaker and I live on a farm with my husband and two boys near Newmarket in Suffolk. I mainly design and print small panels of fabric for other crafters and makers to use in their work. I also create paper collages and make quilts for … Continue reading "Meet the Maker – Lucie Summers"

With our Christmas Makers’ Market and our Christmas Fab Friday Workshop on last week, we’ve been getting in the festive spirit here in the Handprinted Studio. Our Fab Friday workshoppers printed sheets of wrapping paper that would add charm to any present. Here is a quick design we whipped up for the occasion that can …

I am Sophie Mutter a printmaker living in Worthing. After graduating from a photography degree at Nottingham Trent University in 1997, I went on to have a successful career on the picture desk of OK! Magazine. I loved the celebrity world but was always drawn to the sea, and in 2013 finally took the plunge … Continue reading "Meet the Maker – We are Mountain"