Posts Tagged “Golden Linoleum”

Golden Cut linoleum from Dick Blick

After building my boxes and HAND painting each and everyone for the Colorado Potter’s Guild Show and the Summer Art Market, I decided that I should employ a different method to speed up production of my boxes. Hand painting certainly has a place in my work, but it is labor intensive. So, I decided that the humble relief print would be the perfect solution since I would only need to do the labor-intensive part (carving) up front. The lino-cuts will last years and years and leave a nice imprinted texture on the slabs of clay.

Did I mention that I like using the Golden Cut linoleum from Dick Blick? I hate battleship gray linoleum - ick petuie blech. One other cost effective option,is to carve actual left over linoleum if you have any sitting around your house. Someone in my printmaking class in college did that and it worked great.

I decided to start with a theme that I use frequently - a series of vertical vines. First I draw my sketch with pencil and then go over the drawing with a sharpie for easier carving later on. Pencil smudges, sharpie doesn’t. Love Sharpies - I don’t think one could ever have too many!

Starting to carve

I quickly learned that having the right tools for the job makes all the difference in the world. Forget the cheapo carving tools and invest in some nice palm sized wooden handled ones in a variety of sizes. I purchased my set from a wood working shop in Maine similar to these, though less expensive. One word of caution - carve away from yourself. I speak from experience.

Side View

Finished carving

Yesterday afternoon, I finished carving the vine and even did a little ginkgo leaf cut, since I broke the one I originally made. I tried cutting it out - didn’t work.

Poppy Drawing

My poppy box sold right away at the Summer Art Market, so I decided to replicate it in linoleum. Once again, I hand drew the design in pencil and Sharpie. This time, however, I decided to make this like a line drawing. Where I carve away, it will be raised when I print it on clay. Where the linoleum is left intact, it will leave an impression when printed. Don’t forget that this will be backwards when it’s printed - especially important if you want to add any text. When using text, I like to write words out in pencil and then I hold the linoleum up to a mirror before I carve away to make sure it looks right.

Today, I’m going to venture out to the garagio and do some relief printing on clay. My mom’s birthday is coming up soon and I promised her a box - so I’d better get to work!

Till later,

~Cynthia

Tags: ginkgo, Golden Linoleum, lino-cuts, poppy, relief printing on clay, vine

Golden linoleum, metal ruler, exacto knife and cutting mat
In my last post, I wrote about a book, Image Transfer on Clay, by Paul Wandless and some of the techniques that I wanted to try out. I’ve got my eye on a Print Gocco, but first I’m going to try some of the image transfer techniques with the materials that I have readily available in my studio. I have my mind set on making some ceramic tumblers and impressing my lino-cut onto them for decoration. I was at a friend’s house last week, and I drank wine from a handmade ceramic cup and I can’t tell you how much that added to the experience of drinking the wine and spending time with my friend. Suffice it to say, it left me feeling very full and contented.

Wood-working tools with various shaped gauges to carve the linoleum
I need new wine glasses myself and have been searching for just the right ones for the last 6 months or so. I was looking for glass ones, but ceramic ones will be oh, so much better! These will not have the typical stem, but rather will be modeled after some my friends have recently purchased at Divino, that look like small juice glasses.

Requisite glass of red wine - though I don’t recommend cutting and drinking
My clip art image which I’ve resized in Photoshop
I chose an image of a dragonfly from some Dover Clip Art as the basis of my design. I was looking for something simple and small that I could use as my stamp. If you sign up for Dover’s email list, they send free clip art samples to you once a week. I have a folder on my computer just for the clip art in the event I need a little help with the shape or details of something I’m making. Once I cut the linoleum down to size I drew the dragonfly directly onto the linoleum.

Cutting the linoleum down to size - in this case about 1.75″ x 2.5″
I’ve drawn a likeness of the dragonfly directly onto the linoleum with a pencil
Beginning to carve
I haven’t made a relief print block in quite some time and I had to reacquaint myself with the process. Safety precautions: cut away from yourself, don’t have your hands in front of the direction of your carving tool - better yet, use a bench hook to use as a stop.

Dragon fly image and finished linocut
I decided to try out my linocut and made a card. This helps me to decide where I might need to clean up the edges of the linocut.
I used Lyra watercolor crayons to test out my linocut. It works pretty good. Next up today, I’m going to throw some small porcelain tumblers and print my dragonfly onto the clay to see how well this is going to work. So, stay tuned for part 2 coming up the day after next. Here’s an article by Paul Wandless from Pottery Making Illustrated on how to use a lino-cut to impress clay.

Closeup of linocut

Enjoy your Sunday, and Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there,

Tags: ceramic wine glasses, dover clip art, dragonfly, Golden Linoleum, lino-cuts, linocut, paul wandless

I picked up the book (above) from the library a few weeks ago and only got around to reading it yesterday morning. Paul Wandless’ book has me swimming with ideas of how to use some print-making techniques on clay. I think it’s going to be the next phase of experimentation in clay work for me. I do love the immediacy of carving in clay, but it is time consuming, a commodity that I always seem to be lacking lately. I do have some Golden Cut Linoleum that I have been planning on using. I just need to cut the sheets down to size. The ones that I have are 18″ x 24″ sheets. By taking the time to carve a master block, I would be able to make multiples of a single image. I’m a proficient thrower and slab maker so I could easily throw a set of mugs and then “print” the design vs. carving them for hours.

Also up next is trying out some toner decals for ceramic pieces and some other image transfer techniques on clay such as Lazertran transfers as outlined in Paul’s book. Lazertran transfers don’t work for functional pieces because it’s a cold technique, meaning that it’s not fired onto the surface. Toner decals are fired onto the surface which would make these pieces useable.

I’m also intrigued by a Japanese product, called RISO Print Gocco. GOCCO is an at home screen printing process, and depending on the size of your unit, you can make masters for a 4″ x 6″ image up to double that size. Paul Wandless also does screen printing on clay, but the GOCCO seems like it would be a little easier to set up. Instead of inks for the screen printing, underglazes are used for ceramics. The image is then baked on the surface of the piece and it can be glazed too. I have done relief printing on clay before and really enjoyed the process.

You can check out some of Paul’s work here.

I took someone to the airport this morning at 5am, I didn’t realize how beautiful the sunrise is over the city of Denver at that time of day. I wish I had brought my camera!

Have a good weekend everyone,

Tags: Golden Linoleum, image transfer on clay, lazertran, Paul Andrew Wandless, Print Gocco, printmaking, toner decals