LINO TUTORIAL - STAGE 2

Right, so we've got all our materials, and we've made our image, and we've cut our image. The next step is to ink up your plate and to print your plate/image. Following on from Stage 1, step 1-3, what we need now is:

• the cut plate
• ink
• inking-up plate
• roller (or brush etc)
• paper/fabric surface to print on
• .. and the newspaper/old shirt to avoid tears and 'vanish' sessions

LINO CUTTING TUTORIAL, STAGE 2

Step 4

Take your inking-up plate (this could be the piece of glass/ acrylic/ thick acetate) and spread a small amount of ink on the area. You will now take your roller and roll out your ink, making sure there are no large 'blobby' bits - you are just looking for an even surface of ink on the roller.

Step 5

Place your lino plate on the newspaper/ brown paper and roll your roller over the plate, making sure you have even coverage of colour... believe it or not, rolling the ink on the inking-up area and on the plate takes a lot or practise, and there are specialist techniques used to get a professional print finish, but for now, just make sure you have even cover.

Step 6

Now for the exciting bit, the transferring of the image - place your inked-up plate centrally on a piece of paper the same size as you will print. Take the paper that you are printing onto, and line it up at one edge, carefully lower onto the plate, and smooth over quickly but lightly. 

Step 7

Take your baren/wooden spoon and place even coverage and pressure (quite a lot) onto the back of the page. 

Step 8

You can lift the edges up to see if it has printed well enough. Don't worry if your first go is quite faint - just ink up again and try again.

TIPS:

1. Clean clean clean.... that's one of the things about printmaking - you tend to have to be very clean (if not tidy) and fairly organised.
2. You can warm the plate before you start cutting to make it easier to cut into - I actually use a hot water bottle, but you could leave it in the sun/ on a radiator, or iron on the back of the lino.
3. Be REALLY careful with the lino tools - they are bloody sharp and because you are using a certain amount of pressure, it can sometimes, shoot into your hand - avoid that, it is sore. Don't let your kid go crazy or even near the tools... I will upload some child-friendly printing techniques in the future.
4. Sometimes a very faint print, or an 'incomplete' print can have a much nicer effect.

LINO TUTORIAL - STAGE 1