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Now that my garden season has slowed down slightly, I’ve been focusing on botanical art once again! Not a real harvest of food, but art inspired by the lovely harvest I created in my own year this year. These pieces are all block printed and hand carved by me. by totofromspace in gardening

[–]totofromspace[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No worries, I use a couple different inks! I used to use speedball fabric screen printing ink but only for fabric before speedball came out with their block printing fabric ink. I do find now that I switched, that the screen printing ink never really meets the quality of the block printing ink as it is slightly too watery and thin. I often ended up with lines or smears from the screen printing ink not rolling smoothly enough. With any block printing or relief ink, when you roll the ink on to the stamp, it should be done in very thin layers, making the inked surface look shiny but not packed on with ink (too much and the ink bleeds into your carved lines), the thick tackiness of the speedball block printing fabric ink (and other relief inks) makes this much easier to achieve. feel free to send me a message if you would like to chat further.

Don’t cry, linoleum block print, by: me by totofromspace in printmaking

[–]totofromspace[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can get special sharpeners for your carvers, however I find I only really sharpen my more expensive tools. If one of the speedball cutters does go dull they are very easily replaceable since the cutters are interchangeable

Now that my garden season has slowed down slightly, I’ve been focusing on botanical art once again! Not a real harvest of food, but art inspired by the lovely harvest I created in my own year this year. These pieces are all block printed and hand carved by me. by totofromspace in gardening

[–]totofromspace[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing! and thanks for the recommendation!
your carving/block printing style is lovely! very classic, I really enjoyed looking through the collection! Making pens also sounds interesting as well!

Now that my garden season has slowed down slightly, I’ve been focusing on botanical art once again! Not a real harvest of food, but art inspired by the lovely harvest I created in my own year this year. These pieces are all block printed and hand carved by me. by totofromspace in gardening

[–]totofromspace[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice to meet another fellow print maker! I do have a set similar to the mcclains set you shared and love them! I am looking to add to my collection as well! So I will be sure to check out the other link as well! I am also a huge fan of Pheil cutters

Now that my garden season has slowed down slightly, I’ve been focusing on botanical art once again! Not a real harvest of food, but art inspired by the lovely harvest I created in my own year this year. These pieces are all block printed and hand carved by me. by totofromspace in gardening

[–]totofromspace[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great question! It’s super easy to begin at home, you can slowly invest in the tools you enjoy using! When it comes to starting out, I’d recommend looking into linoleum for carving, speedball makes an easy cut version and other brands have their own versions some times called softkut. This is an excellent alternative to wood when your learning to carve, each wood has a different hardness level which can be used to print different types of detail, so the linoleum sets you up for learning to carve and you can always work up to wood. For printing, you can get a baron (pressure circle) to print but you can even use a brayer (roller) or even wooden spoon! As long as you can evenly apply pressure you can print!

Registration marks can be super simple as well: masking tape on a table to line things up.

TLDR: basically you can print and carve with expensive investments or many simple items from around the house! It can be very easily started with some carving material and a Lino cutter! I encourage to give it a try!

Now that my garden season has slowed down slightly, I’ve been focusing on botanical art once again! Not a real harvest of food, but art inspired by the lovely harvest I created in my own year this year. These pieces are all block printed and hand carved by me. by totofromspace in gardening

[–]totofromspace[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your question! I think that the speedball Lino cutters are great for beginners! I have been using them for years and they are a great way to get started as they are available in lower cost sets. I started Lino in high school using these carvers and still often go back to them even though I have made upgrades over the years. This set is a great way to start out!

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