Print Workshop - Saturday Morning 6th Feb, Ipswich

As a surprise birthday present my sister in law bought me a lino cut workshop. I was sceptical at first but it turned out to be one of the best birthday presents ever! The tutor was Dale Devereux Barker who is a fellow of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers amongst other things and he really knew his stuff.

He fined us £1 if we referred to the inks as 'paint' and used profesional lithographic printers inks which were very viscous and oil based. He showed us how to roller out the ink until it stopped making that sticky sound and became satin in appearance. We then applied the ink to blank blocks of lino and printed them on proper printing paper using a hand press. We then over printed using stencils made out of paper or found objects like feathers.

I was amazed at how precise the printed images of feathers were and how flat and even the printed colours were. Of course you can go on to use second generations of print from the same block or spray vegatable oil onto the block or contaminate it with talcum powder to give special textured effects too.

What made it all work, unlike my own attemps at home, was a subtle combination of using the right inks. in the right way, on the right paper and with the right press. I have to admit that I have been finding water based inks very frustrating as they dry too quickly and give a very poor quality print (unless that is the quality you want).

Also we worked very small, Dales view being that the larger you go the less consistensy you will acheive because most of the pressure from the press is in the centre. He showed us some of his own work done with lots of small, blocks combined to make a larger print and this is something I will try.

For the second half of the morning we worked on cutting the lino to produce images and then going back to the block and removing more lino and printing again in another colour. Reduction method.

I also found that where I had marked the lino with red felt pen it came out on the print and this is a technique I will use also.

Following the course I tried to get some oil based inks from an art shop and managed to get a small tin of White. I have since tracked down the supplier and ordered five more colours.

I tried buying some professional lithographic ink from a company I tracked down on Google but they seemed almost reluctant to sell it to me saying it probably wouldn't dry if I didn't use a proper printing press! I find this hard to beleive and have contacted Dale to find out who he gets his inks from.

Dale suggested that I get in touch with print firms in the Watford area where I live and ask if I can dive into the skip that they throw their empty print tubs into. Apparently they usually leave quite useable amounts in them and this could be a useful source of free ink. So I'm off to Watford Printers Ltd.

I'm also going to get some proper printing paper from John Purcell Paper in Stockwell as I feel the extra fine and shiny, brilliant white cartridge paper I have been using is probably hindering my efforts.

I don't think the printing I have done so far has been wasted, I just think I should be aware of the characteristics of both water based and oil based inks and use both, in combination if necessary, where a prticular effect is required.

I've posted some of Dales work here as I like it very much.