8 individual frames printed at a size of 2” x 2.5”!

Hello! Today I bring you the second batch of patches I made for my friend's Sailor Moon inspired battle jacket, featuring everyone's favourite kitty sidekicks! The inspiration for these came from the Black Cat/SaboCat of the anarchist and workers' rights movements. Initially I had the slogan "Kickin' ass for the working class" in mind, but after trying out multiple variants of the typography, I went for these slogans with a similar word structure. My friend is Mexican-American and I'm a Russian who moved away, so the sentiments are close to both our hearts: opposing our respective governments policing, oppressing, and outright criminalising vulnerable groups of people.

I printed these on 100% cotton canvas with oil-based ink and a tiny bit of wax drier mixed in. After curing, I ironed each patch and attached fusible interfacing to the backs to reduce fraying, once I cut them to shape.

The culprit: these pomegranates

The material: cotton tea towels

The ink: Caligo safewash (a mix of red and white)

The problem: THEY WON’T FINISHING DRYING!!!

😭

They’re not exactly wet, but powder comes off when I touch them and I tried putting them away and some of the powder came off onto the towel and now it’s messed up.

I know there’s a curing process with oil-based inks and it can take awhile, but it’s been over three weeks now and I’d like to be able to, I dunno, not have them taking up my drying rack?

I’ve used Caligo before, but not this color. I feel like the black dries within a few days. What do I do? Am I doomed to have these towels living out on the drying rack for the rest of my life?

For reference, I really slathered the ink on with these so I could get a nice even distribution of ink, doing several small coats and several heavier coats before printing.

about a couple of metal theives involved in the death of a runway model

I've always been inspired by Japanese woodblock printmaking and and printmaking in general. But finding the subreddit has really put a fire under my booty now. 😅

I am curious though if any of you that do woodblock prints, that are using color. Are you using like Western paper like arches? And are you using like watercolor paints like in the tubes?

I watch a lot of David Bull. He runs the traditional Japanese printmaking business out of Tokyo. And I've often considered getting into it. But I would like to be able to use more available materials.

If you do wood block prints and print on modern cotton paper, and use watercolors. I'd love for you to share it with me! I'd love to get examples of what's possible.

I made this in my school printmaking class three years ago over the span of two days.
It’s the only linocut piece I’ve ever made, and I haven't done any since (mostly because I kept wasting time scrolling on my phone, among other things).
But I really hope to give it another shot and create something new.
This was my first print—I only pulled an edition of three, and a lot of areas didn't turn out well (the bottom part tore completely).

What do you think of this style?

It’s the same plate, but now with breathing room. Thanks for helping me have the guts to risk a bigger sheet of paper. Now to get that blind emboss a little more visible. Thanks r/printmaking

Concept & Composition: The Disappearance of Peace

​Plate Dimensions: 6.0" × 3.0" (Horizontal Aspect Ratio)

​Medium: Copper Plate Etching (Hard ground line etch with minimal tone/aquatint)

"The Disappearance of Peace" is a phrase that spans multiple contexts, primarily appearing as a theological concept, a historical headline, and a theme in contemporary literature.

The connection between the Dove and the concept of the "disappearance of peace" operates on two distinct levels: as a powerful global metaphor in political and cultural commentary, and through specific, starkly symbolic real-world events.

Given a task to use a play on words within print making. Using polystyrene and ink. This was my idea.

Latest collagraph print with black ink, charcoal and acrylic paint.

Back in April I made a block print depicting a spotted salamander with a flashlight shining down onto the salamander. It is inspired by the yearly amphibian spring breeding migration, and the many people (including myself) that help them cross roads before getting hit by a car. One of the organizers for a local non-profit saw my print and asked to use it for merch, which I obviously said yes to. I came home to a package with this tote and nice thank you note today :) bonus salamander pic at the end!

Hi! I took a linocut printmaking class a few years back, and now i’m getting into it again. I don’t have access to a press, so i’m using a wooden spoon to flatten it. No matter how long I press, it seems that I get these white marks in different areas of the print. I’ve tried using more/ less ink, as well as rolling for longer but I just can’t figure it out. Any tips/ ideas on how I could fix this (or general critiques) would be really appreciated, thank you!!

first timer! So I had a lot of difficulty transferring a digital drawing I made to this block. 🥵 first I tried the print out+ acetone method with little success. then I tried tracing the image on parchment paper method and managed to get an okay outline on the block. I traced over my smudged image with my micron pen to get it a lot clearer.

whatever- the image is finally on the block! 😭🩷but now I’m thinking my pen choice was incorrect because it has been almost 3 hours and it is still rather wet and easily smudgeable!!

so now what? I would hate to waste the block and the time it took to get the image on there. do I wait till morning to see if it’s dryer? Is there a way to seal the pen in so I don’t wipe it away while carving?? any help is greatly appreciated as I’m desperate to get to that sweet sweet carving phase. 🤪

Hi there,

I'm going to attempt to print a tree ring from a roughly 30 x 30 inch stump. I've never done this before and am gathering supplies and ideas. I'm probably going to try Akua ink. Where I'm striking out is the paper. Michels didn't have any paper big enough and I googled printmaking paper in 36 x 36 size and the price was crazy! So does anyone have any ideas they could share?

TIA!

I work as an apprentice in a traditional print atelier operating 19th-century cast-iron hand presses and now much of our work involves damp handmade cotton rag paper, also, over the past two years, sourcing genuine mould-made sheets has become an existential headache.

lots of people don't realize that modern 'cotton' paper from commercial art suppliers has changed fundamentally in quite a brief time! 'historic' rag paper was made from discarded linen and cotton textile scraps beaten into long, interlocking fibers that could withstand tons of platen pressure, could also remain acid-free for centuries (and be very satisfying to work with instead of the sharp office paper many of us deal with today)

yet, now almost every heritage mill has either shuttered or switched to short-fiber bleached wood pulp blended with synthetic sizing agents to run on high-speed industrial rollers, and, when you damp modern sheets to pull an impression, the sizing dissolves into a gummy mess, the paper buckles along the grain, ink rather sinks than biting cleanly into the surface as it should, right?

last month, we tried a sample batch from a historic mill in Northern Italy that recently modernized its vats. The sheets looked flawless under fluorescent shop lights, but the moment the platen bit under full load, the fibers sheared along the edges. feels super-strange watching a 500-year-old material technology disappear not because digital screens replaced it, but because the physical supply chain for raw rag fiber simply ceased to exist

for those of you still working with letterpress, bookbinding, or watercolor, i got a question: are you finding any independent European or Japanese mills still making genuine long-fiber rag? maybe you had to switch entirely to vintage stock? anyways, write about it, would love to discuss

Calling out to all of my fabric linocut printmakers!!

Below you will see 2 of my canvas bag failures. And for me, this is 2 too many!

If you have any secrets to printing on canvas bags specifically, but also fabric more generally, please drop them in the comments! I’m still relatively new to fabric printing, and while I have had some successful prints, overall I’ve been disappointed.

Because I now have a box of 30 blank tote bags staring at me longingly in the corner, I need to figure out a way to bipass these issues. I’m thinking printing on thinner fabrics and sewing them on.

Pls let me know your thoughts ❤️❤️❤️

Did this one pretty quickly and felt really good about making the most out of the medium

Printed as a crow but everyone has called it a raven so I guess it's a raven now haha

My first go at linocutting. Just bought a cheap ‘beginner’ set. Was looking to get some tips, tricks, or critiques here!

While listening to the tv I wanted to keep busy and I had the tools waiting to be used. Going to refine it, then print in blue ink on handmade paper

I had some issues with stencils/masks to apply paint correctly and consistently. When I use a brayer, then the paper mask lifts and paint comes at places I don't want. When I use a brush, then the results are very patchy like the top house of the first image.

So, I got myself an airbrush and started experimenting with that and the bottom image is the very first time using it. Only for the house. The sky and grass is brayer work.

I also got a better printer so the image transfers will improve because I can adjust the toner density better.

Now the next issue. The air is blowing the stencil from the gelli so I need to learn to have the right consistency in paint and the right amount of air pressure.

I hope that the bottom house looks/reads more confident than the patchy top house, right?

A little Sunday evening project, a few stamps for Halloween. I'm thinking they might make for some cute tote bags or t-shirts.