Printing Begins

Things have gone better than expected with the card. While the image transfer didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped it would, it worked well enough to get the carving done. Next time I need to be sure to cover both surfaces with the gel. I only coated the lino and while that worked the image did pull away with the paper so I need a stronger bond.

All three "plates" are carved and some test prints have been made. The registration of the blocks needs to be adjusted a bit but really it was pretty good considering I really forgot about needing to make registration marks at all.

Here we go ready to start full scale production!

In the upper left you can just make out the drying racks. Under that are the three cans of ink being used for this card. Bottom left is my quickly thrown together registration plate, it is as perfect a 90 degree angle as I can make with my carpenter squares. In place is the red plate and the black and green plates are off to the right. Brayer and ink knife towards the upper right and then my wooden spoon I use as a baren (and no I didn't steal it from the kitchen, my wife gave it to me because it wasn't a good wooden kitchen spoon, makes a great baren though!).

Cartoon Wednesday

 

Transfer design to block for Linocut

Lo and  behold it actually worked! Yesterday I painted the matte gel medium on to the linoleum and put paper copies of the design on top of it. I let that dry overnight. I had hoped to peel it off the top like the one youtube video I watched (although I see that he used glossy gel medium) but it didn't. I then proceeded to Plan B. I simply rubbed the paper off with a damp sponge and it "magically" left the design on the block. Success!

Next step is to start the carving. Each block will be used for a different color; red, green and black and I have a spare if I really screw one of them up. I need to move pretty quickly at this point so that the linocuts are ready when the ink arrives. The ink is arriving from a couple of different sources, it seems there has been quite the run of printers ink across the country during the pandemic.

I cut down the paper to the size of the block after the gel had dried.

Here the paper is wetted down and I'm rubbing it off gently with a damp sponge.

And here the image is revealed. I didn't rub the paper all the way off since most of it is going to get cutaway anyway. Time to bring out the blades!

Its That Time of the Year - Making Christmas Cards

So many Trees last year

With everything that has been going on neither my wife or I have felt particularly festive. Yet the holidays are closing in fast and the only thing we have done for the Christmas card is the design (which will not yet be revealed). Suddenly I'm feeling very enthused about it though, so I'm running with it.

I have ordered new inks for this card as I'm going to try my hand at using multiple colors this year. That means that each color needs its own printing block to be carved. The design is pretty straightforward so the carving is pretty simple, especially compared to last year's tree. The key will be getting everything lined up properly.

I'm also go to try a new transfer technique using acrylic gel medium, crossing my fingers on this one as its by far the fastest and easiest way I have seen. The one example I saw was a piece that must have been 2'x3' and it worked like a charm. I made four copies of the design and started the transfer process on to the linoleum. I'll need to have the carving done quickly so we can get straight to the printing stage since each color needs about 3 days to dry completely, although I suppose they don't have to be completely dry, will  have to think about that.

Forgot that we had to make a trip to Hobby Lobby. We are going with a brown card this year, although that will now require some rethinking of the design which originally was going to use the white of the card for an element of the design will just have to rethink that a bit.

Starting the transfer, a piece of linoleum, a cheap brush and Matte Gel

Spread a relatively thin coating on the linoleum, as thin and even as possible

Here I'm using the registration marks on the design to get the linoleum in the right spot. Far easier on this small card to place the linoleum on the paper than the other way around.

A fuzzy image with the paper side up and any air pockets smoothed out. In theory, I should be able to peel this off and it will leave the toner from the print on the linoleum. If that doesn't work I'll try an alternative technique using the matte gel.

Cartoon Wednesday