paul wandless | Colorado Art Studio

Jun 17 2007

Linocut Experiment

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.