Lino Printing

Linoleum was invented by a British rubber manufacturer, Fredrick Walton, in 1860 who was looking for a cheaper product. This easy material caught the eye of artists to decide that it was a good material for printmaking. Artists like German Expressionists, Erich Heckel and Gabriele Munter, as well as Russian Constructivist artists by 1913. Black and white linocuts appeared in the UK in 1912, which soon follwed to be full colour linocuts.

The tools usually used to cut out the lino is called the shape blade. There are many different shapes of the blades, each designed to give a different style of cut, from narrow and deep to broad and shallow. I used the broad blade to take off more lino, as well as a scalpel to score the lines exactly so that I wouldnt go off the edge. I did cut myself a few times, understanding eventually that it is better to keep my fingers behind the blade. The blades are very sharp. Also, a key note, it is obvious that what lino is cut away will not be printed and what's left behind, that is where the ink (waterbased ink).

The process is easy enough: once the image is cut into the lino, spread a thin layer of ink evenly across the design with a roller and place in position in a printing press, putting the paper over the top of the lino, the proceed to press the design onto the lino. Printing press tends to speed up the experimentation alot.

However, the printing ink is extremely sticky and tends to dry very quickly when left to its own devices. That is why, it was a good idea to roll it back and forth on a glass palette, before putting it on the lino.

Single colour lino prints were the easiest to do, because there was no need to thought of cutting different parts of the design to get more colour. However, within my experimentation, there was not enough time to explore two or more colours within the process of stopping to put colour on each part of the cutting process; instead, what I did, was to experiment the colour process by how well blending colours on the same palette is. It worked very well.

Textures and different materials, have a good effect also, especially layers that dont have a smooth layer.

Below is my lino cut, where I have scanned it in so it can be seen. There are some holes within the lino, and that is because I cut right through the lino as well as the mesh that was holding it together; this doesnt really make a problem for the final lino print but just to be on the safe side, I have cellotaped the back so nothing can come through. What is more worrying is the fact, that within my experimentation, there were prints that had colour within the white area, where there wasnt supposed to be. This is because some of the lino within the print was not cut down far enough; therefore, there is a small line from not doing enough and going too far.