There are plenty of good instructions for linoleum printing online, so if you want to do it the proper way, you should read the tutorial at Sunberst Illustration or this one from Lizzy House. But I’ll show you quickly how I made prints with the kids. My six-year-old and my four-year-old were able to do everything in this process except the cutting. This is the first time I’ve done this since high school, so I’m certainly no expert! Do you like it when I tell you that I don’t really know how to do something, but then I proceed to tell you how to do it? Yeah, I have a problem with that.
There are some essential tools for this. All can be found at the art supply store or around your house for under $50.
- linoleum (I bought the cheap kind for experimenting: $1.58 for a 4″x6″ piece at the art supply store)
- carving tool
- water-soluble ink
- brayer (rolling device to spread the ink out)
- smooth surface for spreading the ink (piece of glass or metal is ideal)
- baren, or something to press onto the paper (see our method below)
- smooth paper
My older daughter drew a duck design directly onto the linoleum. You’ll be seeing a lot of duck crafts this week, as she is working on a report for school. My husband asked “Is this a research project or a craft project?”. Yes, everything is a craft project around here.
Then I carved the design. I cut along the lines, but you could also carve out the negative space. You can see that I slipped a bit on my first curve, so it might be a good idea to buy an extra piece of linoleum for practicing. Then we spread our ink on the metal board, spread it with the brayer until it was even and smooth, then rolled it onto the linoleum. We placed the linoleum on top of the paper (some instructions say to place the paper on top of the linoleum, but whatever works). Since we didn’t have a baren, we improvised by using a heavy book and our feet. The children took turns dancing and jumping on the prints, which was definitely their favorite part of the process. Then you just pull up the linoleum and there it is. We made some prints and some notecards for teacher gifts. These certainly weren’t perfect, but I think we’ll get better with more practice.
Try it with your kids and show us the results! Add your photos to the Make it Mondat Flickr pool here. Wow, I hadn’t checked that group in a while — lots of butterfly mobiles over there!
I just made stamps with my daughter this weekend but instead of hauling out all the my speed ball ink and mess we made smaller cuts and used a regular ink pad. Thanks for the tutorial.
I can’t wait to do this with my son! Thank you,….yeah I think the last time I did this was high school…a long time ago!
Do any of us really know what we are doing? You seem to. And, these are great instructions. I’ve wanted to try this for awhile and now I know I can and even involve the kids. Your cards turned out great.
I’ve just started this “art” back up myself and have ended up carving many Stamps I’ve designed myself….
http://artycrafty.wordpress.com/galleries/hand-cut-stamps/
Now I’m finding rubber and doing the same thing. Its so much fun!!!
Ellen — this is a great idea. And I love the dresses you’ve been making!
These are wonderful–primitive and powerful and whimsical all at once. And the color is great!
Love the simplicity of the drawing but also how cool it looks like this. Beautiful.
I haven’t done any printing in a while and you reminded me!
I am so going to try this project! Thanks for sharing. Love your blog.
I’ve nominated you for The Lemonade Award! You can pick it up on my blog here: http://www.craftynest.com/2009/05/the-lemonade-award/ Congrats!
These are so wonderful!
So simple and so effective!
Thank you for sharing.
hi,
you can also use foam rubber for creating stamps. http://www.visualjunkfood.com/?p=131 its much easier for kids because they can cut them out.
janosch
These were so inspiring! I remebered them from school art days, so HAD to rush out and get busy straight away! You can see the photos(and link) of our efforts on my blog. PS do you know if you pop the lino in the microwave for a few (20) secs it is much easier to cut warm than cold? Love all your great ideas..
Your method for pressing was actually used by a famous block print artist. There is a photo of Virginia Demetrios (ne Virginia Lee Burton author of children’s books)jumping onto some of her famous blocks to get a print in a museum we visited. The photo doesn’t appear to be on their website.http://capeannmuseum.com/decorative/folly_cove.htm
Later she and her group, the Folly Cove Designers got an acorn press.
http://www.sarah-elizabeth-shop.com/sites/default/share/pictures/acorn_press.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Lee_Burton
We love her books too, but that isn’t really related to the block print info above.
Thank you so much for the wonderful tutorial Jen, it was great. I tried it with my daughter this weekend and we loved it. Thanks you for sharing!