Posts
MY FINGERS in my student days used to be blackened more often than they are now with printing inks. I studied at the London College of Printing (these days renamed the London College of Communication for some unknown reason...) and in between my Book Arts studies I enjoyed my days in the rooms of old presses, making, amongst other things, woodcuts and linocuts and collograph prints (a sort of poor man's etching).
So I was happy to be embroiled with roller and linoleum again today for a wee project for my brother and his lady who are soon to be man and wife. They are an artistic pair with hands designed for handmaking things, and wanted their wedding invitations to be hand printed. They had in mind a sort of tile design with two birds and some flourishes. So here below follows my little adventure in linocutting.. using a wonderful Japanese Lino, which is in fact a two-coloured sort of plastic that cuts like butter and shows up helpfully where you have and have not cut.
I will now send the lino plate to the happy couple who no doubt stand rollers-at-the-ready to print out their dozens of wedding invites in whichever colours they choose.
In between the two neck-craning birds are two wedding rings.
This last image can be seen larger if you click on it
35 comments:
What a beautiful design! I have very fond memories of creating basic lino designs at school years ago. Such a simple procedure can really produce beautiful prints. I'm sure your brother and his intended will love them.
Yum, that brings back delicious memories, loved doing lino cut. Such a beautiful design for a wedding. sw scotland! thats a coincidence indeed. Its such a lovely place, & very wet (again)but wouldn't swap it for a thing - ruthie x
What a pretty design! I did a lino cut a long time ago in elementary or junior high school. We were instructed to choose an image with simple lines, and I chose Hagar the Horrible from the Sunday comics.
This is decidedly more sophisticated.
I don't suppose you have any other brothers you'd perform the same feat for when they marry me? I'm not sure I could manage to send the invites out, tho. Would probably just hoard them.
This is so beautiful Rima. I get the feeling that those two lucky ducks will really appreciate this! It sets a beautiful tone for a beautiful day.
Beautiful and thanks for the reminder on 'how to'. I went to an evening workshop on Lino prints not so long ago and your post has made me put 'Ink and rollers" on the weekly shopping list!
Rima, you are such an amazing artist!!! I love to see what you are up to...how wonderful it is that you have a blog and can share your wonderful creativity. I'm Lady Em's mom-in-law-to-be and she loves you as well! Thank you always for your creative inspiration ~ xxoo, Dawn
Yum Yum delicious....
I didn't even know linoleum was engaged!
Congratulations to your brother and bride-to-be!
Your art is always spectacular!
Ah, this brings back fond memories of college days :)
A lovely design for a wedding invitation, I'm sure they will be very pleased!
Lovely! Thanks for sharing the process.
Mmmm, really interesting to see the 'how' of arriving at this end result. I wonder if this could be made easier to handle by mounting it on a wood block like a regular stamp.
How lovely - you certainly do have a steady hand! Your design reminds me when we used to screenprint teashirts to sell with celtic knotwork designs. (Every time I see celtic knotwork I get reminded of that time!)
An auspicious beginning for a marriage, to be sure. Such a good design =:0} My brother got married last year, they had sort of generic invites, they didn't consult me on that, though I was their "minister". The Japanese lino looks yummy to work on, I have only encountered the sort of stiff stuff.....
Simply stunning! I'd love to know the brand of linoleum you used as I'm not getting any good results googling Japanese linoleum.
How pretty is that? Even the linoleum is beautiful, in itself. I made one of these myself, way back in college. Your brother and his "soon to be" are going to love these, Rima!! :)
This post is so well timed as I have been trying to teach myself lino printing and have been ordering supplies of the internet. I have tried a white, soft substance called soft-cut but would love to know the name of the stuff that you are using. Also, do you use wood block cutting tools?
Wow. These are so beautiful. I would be happy to attend any wedding that invited me in such a magical way!
Really...these are gorgeous.
Hello folks, thank you all for your kind words... yes I am rather pleased with how it turned out :)
To answer questions about the japanese lino - yes it does seem hard to find on the web. I bought it from a printing supplies shop in south London some years ago. Shall see if I can do a bit of hunting.
The tools are my dad's woodcarving tools :)
Happy weekend all x
Thanks for your help Rima, the print is very lovely and executed with such skill.
I attended a Janine Pope workshop, she is a print maker and book artist. It was very inspiring, she made a printing press out of a pasta making machine! I seem to remember that you can use a piece of transparent film, the sort of A4 plastic sleeves that fit into ring binders, as a sort of emergency surface to roll out ink, although I think glass is best.
Lovely design - looks like it belongs on a Celtic brooch.
Just beautiful!
I have nominated your blog for an award - details on my blog.
That's lovely :) the design reminds me a bit of those celtic knotwork animal patterns all intertwined, very cool :)
Enelya :)
Absolutely beautiful...a design that the lucky couple can use all their married life.
Great tutorial. I have some little fellows that you might like to meet on my current blog post. Would love to hear what you think of them.
Gorgeous work. I love your blog. I have nominated it for an award. Please check out my blog and hopefully it will make you smile.
Talented girl.
absolutely fabulous. Anyone who receives such a beautiful invite will be very lucky indeed!
thank you so much for sharing this. It gives me great ideas when I see process work.
RIMA!!! You are great! I always wanted to try lino, and now I'm definitely trying it! I'll get some linoleo later on! Lovely work, by the way...
I fear it is not so easy as you make it look but I want to through caution to the wind and give it a go!!
x V.
Fab! And cranes are a Japanese symbol of long life too, so a long life to the marriage.
superbe, ça fait plaisir à voir
;D
You make it all sound so simple Rima! How talented you are. I'm sure your brother and new sister in law will love it.
I studied art in East London... South Africa. :-D It confuses people here (North Scotland) terrible when I say I once lived near East London.
I miss wood carving the most. I can't say if I was any good at it, I just loved it. the feel of a chisel and mallet in my hands and the smell of wood chips. THe only art I've done since I moved countries is a half-finished water colour soul-portrait of myself stuck in the back of a closet. Problem is I like water colours unfinished. I like the wash and pencil vagueness. I really don't want to finish it.
wandering around your blog I'm feel restless for a way to get creative again. I left all my "stuff" when I moved hemispheres and at first that was devestating - you know. Stuff that is worthless and cannot justify paying to send around the world like last dregs of paint and dyes, old buttons, beads, my very rusty wood carving tools. I arrived here pared down to bare me. It just killed any desire to create stone dead. My husband bought me paper and paints, but I'd just sit and look at their brand newness and feel as blank as the paper!
Now I've lived here long enough to start hoarding stuff again I'm starting to feel more alive. I think I must have been a squirrel in a former life. ;-)
You know, I've been watching for some positively riveting information close to woodworking and topics mutual, and I haven't been
gifted to find any until this moment. Thanks in search writing such a enormous article, and I just wanted to taper off you a edging and cause to you recognize that I'll for all
back backside again to check in sight some more of your stuff. I absolutely appreciate the info, and the blog is incredibly
diverting to read. I guess that's everything! Thanks! Forgive me, my English Language is not very adept.
Post a Comment