Jane provides a brief introduction to Lino Printing.
What is Lino Printing?
Lino printing is a form of fine art printmaking where the printing plate is cut into a piece of Lino.
Here we show the necessary equipment for Lino Printing.
- Blades £1.95 each
- Handles £3.45 each
- Roller £8.95
- Ink (water based) £7.75
- Lino tile £5.75
Starting the process
Draw your design on to the surface of the Lino with pencil. You have to keep in mind that this process is negative positive, so the areas you carve away will be white and the remainder will be black.
Using the different sized blades for fine work to taking out larger areas.
Here we have a piece of Lino and a selection of blades.
Carving the Lino
Once you are happy with your drawn design you can start carving away.
Sometimes, if the Lino is cold, it can be harder to carve so you can either pop the Lino on to a radiator to warm up or as I was told you can sit on it for a while till it warms up.
Inking your roller
Once you are happy with your design it’s time to ink your piece. Have a piece of good quality paper at hand and using a plastic tray or a piece of perspex squeeze out a blob of ink on to the Perspex, see below.
Take your roller and start working the ink on the Perspex, all your looking for is a fine coverage of ink on the roller.
Ink the Lino
Once you have a nice even coat of ink on the roller you can run the roller over the surface of your Lino until it is covered in the ink.
Once the Lino is inked up lay your piece of paper you have ready and place on to the surface, if you have a printing press then this can be used to print your design however you can apply pressure by hand to transfer the ink to the paper.
Is easy and fun and you don’t need a lot of equipment to achieve a great print.
These are 3 of the lino prints I created while printmaking at college.
Gadsby’s sell all of the artists materials and supplies mentioned in this article. The prices were correct at the time of publication.
Jane is a member of the Gadsby’s team. She has a wide knowledge of the arts & crafts products and materials sold by Gadsby’s both from the perspective of an advisor in the shop and, for many of the products, from personal use too.
