Andy Chase

During the summer of 2007, I got a bee in my bonnet to have a go at linoleum block printing. I had my grandfather’s tools and fond memories of printing Christmas cards with my family as a kid, so I got myself a block and some new blades, and jumped into it.

The only problem was that my blades didn’t fit my older handle, so I wound up using the old dull blades at my disposal… guaranteed frustration. I put the project aside until I had a chance to get a new handle, not knowing that my attention would soon be diverted to the purchase and subsequent renovation of an old house.

It wasn’t until early this last January that I unearthed my half-finished block, got some new tools, and finished carving… and after a brief, unsuccessful trial printing session it took me another two months to regroup and made a proper go of it. Some notes:

Print on damp paper.

I used some cheap (but acid-free) watercolor sketchpaper, which is heavy and textured. The recommendation I followed (I think I read it at briarpress.org) is to:

1. Take a sheet of paper and either spray both sides with water, or quickly dip it in water, then let the excess drip off.
2. Place a sheet of dry paper on top.
3. Continue layering damp and dry sheets until you have as many sheets as you need.
4. Place the stack of paper in a plastic bag, and place on a flat surface under a flat weight for a few hours, until the moisture evenly distributes itself.

This worked beautifully for me; after a few hours the paper is only very slightly damp, but it makes a huge difference in terms of ink transfer.

Thin your ink a little bit

If you’re using oil-based ink, one recommendation I saw in a clip on YouTube is to add just a drop of printing medium (or plain old linseed oil, which was what I used) to your ink, just to make it flow a little better and transfer more easily to the block and thus to your paper. Again, this was a definite improvement for me over my initial trial a couple of months ago.

Easy cleanup for oil-based ink

Instead of stinking up your workspace with mineral spirits, try using plain old vegetable oil to get the worst of the ink off of your plate and brayer, then finish cleaning up with Simple Green. I didn’t even wind up staining my hands!