adventures in hand-printing...

I love this little mandala!

I've mentioned it before so pardon me if it's a little repetitive but I really can't say it enough...I love printmaking. It was a daily routine in college, with 4 hour studios 4 days a week with additional hours after school and on weekends. It feels so good to be printing again! Albeit it is on a much smaller scale this time in comparison to the stuff I was printing at school but it is still so much fun. 

There has been a lot of experimenting and trying new ways of printing in a tiny space but so far it is all going really well. I feel like I have a MacGyver printing studio now between all the jerry-rigged materials and methods of printing. 

Since I don't have any inking slabs, I have been using my tin-foil ink slab method I found last summer while teaching my printmaking workshop. It's the best! One piece of tin foil taped down keeps all the mess contained to one spot and makes clean up so quick. Perfect for a tiny art bubble! 

Hand-printing with linoleum is also another new challenge. Before I had only used it for embossing so learning how to print with it is a completely new adventure. What I have found works best with my little tiny carvings is to essentially turn them into stamps! I've been dismantling old stamps I have and up-cycling some little plastic boxes and gluing my little leaves, arrows and feathers to them to make stamps. Much better than blindly aiming with the paper and hoping it lands in the center...

An old stamp base and the lid to a box of sewing pins! My favorite stamps...plus the clear plastic lid helps me aim!

I have also noticed I am not the best at making identical prints without the aid of centering marks that you have in Lithography. My aim is usually just a little off so I was having difficulties making multiples of the same card, which is a problem when I'm trying to make every card/envelope/sheet of paper count. The simple solution to that has been printing on butcher paper. I've been printing multiples of the same design on butcher paper then cutting the designs out and attaching them to the cards when they're dry! They add another layer of color but also guarantee I have a centered design and nearly identical products. YES! And it combines some of my favorite color schemes...

The printing on butcher paper has also turned into it's own project...I printed a TON of leaves the other day and covered some pages in their loveliness... these will become book covers for some mini blank books! 

Most of these new designs, books and cards I'm going to save for the Art Market in Santa Barbara next month but there are still plenty of others in my Etsy shop. I may also keep a couple for the sweet ladies that are participating in my Craft it Forward adventure (there's still one more comment spot left if you'd like to participate!)