Block Printing

Block Print Tests

This week I started to teach myself how to block print.

Things I Wish I'd Known About Block Printing Before this Week:
Amazon has very few options for block printing supplies, but it's all I have because Michaels and JoAnn Fabrics do not carry ANY block printing supplies.  I know, because I looked.  Twice.  If only a real art supply store would move in across the street...

So I ordered some of the gold colored Speedball Unmounted Linoleum from some random seller on Amazon, as well as some Speedball Speedy Carve (also known as 'the pink stuff'), which I didn't get because there was a mix up and the seller sent me ink instead.  And a Speedball lino cutter.  So I've got my stuff.

(I just found this website for buying supplies: www.stampeaz.com.  I think I'll go there next time, because their prices are actually better than Amazon's are, and they've got a much better selection.)

Block printing, letterboxing, relief print making, and so on.  All of them use the same stuff, thus all these terms are useful to use when searching for supplies or tutorials.

Speedball apparently has a monopoly on print making supplies.  There aren't many other options.

Carving Linoleum

Things I Wish I'd Known About Carving Linoleum:

This stuff is kinda hard to cut.  It requires quite a bit of force to gouge out, and my hands hurt at the end of the day.

It helps to warm it up.  Some sites said 'hair dryer' and 'electric blanket', but you can save energy by sitting on it.  Just stick it under your butt, and work on another one.  Switch them back and forth as needed.

Transferring images onto the lino is easy.  I have an inkjet printer, so I just print off whatever I need in the appropriate size and cut out the image.  Transferring is easiest if you use the flat side of something and rub the image onto the lino (I have a bone paper folder that works really well, but you can use the edge of a ruler and get the same effect.)  A warm iron also works, but not as well.  Plus, you're just likely to burn your fingers.

It really hurts to stab your finger with the lino cutter.

Use a cutting mat that you don't like much to cut on, because it takes a lot of abuse.

Foam Prints - Clouds, Stars, and Hearts

Things I Wish I Knew About Printing:

I'm having a terrible time with printing.  I've tried many different methods for inking, but nothing is giving me the results I want.  I suspect I'm doing something wrong.

Foam rollers leave the paint in clumps, which gives the positive areas of your stamp a mottled appearance.  This tends to go away if you press down REALLY HARD.  Sort of annoying when you want to make a lot of stamps on the same piece.

I've tried making ink pads out of a piece of felt and soaking the ink in it, but this also gives my prints mottled-ness, and it's ineffective for inking the stamp.

I can't get even pressure over the back of the stamp, so sometimes there are areas of the stamp that don't show up on the page.  It helps if I put a piece of felt underneath the fabric I'm printing, so there's some give, but with fine detailed designs it ends up inking too much.

I've ordered a rubber brayer, since that's what you're 'supposed' to use, but at this point I can't see how that's going to help.


I'm actually really excited about block printing.  I've known all along (since I started sewing) that I was going to wind up printing my own fabric.  I like having my mark over everything, and while I like designer fabrics, I want to do it all myself.  And this way every bag I make will really feel like I made it.  Every little bit of it.