We were thrilled to have Ian Phillips back to teach another two Reduction Linocut Workshops this week. Over each two day course, each participant created
an edition of prints using the reduction lino method. Here are some images from both workshops showing what they got up to and their final results.
Ian’s next Reduction Linocut Workshop is in March next year – book your place now as spaces go quickly!
Hello, I am John Coe, founder, publisher and designer of Pressing Matters magazine – a new printmaking publication that takes a look at the people, process
and passion behind the art form. I approach the curation of the magazine from a ‘creatively curious’ standpoint and find myself getting arm deep trying
out new printmaking techniques and meeting makers to chat about their work. I created a new kind of magazine as, although I have plenty of books about
the subject, I felt that the magazine area of the printmaking world was limited, so decided to do my own!
Describe your magazine-making process.
It’s a pretty drawn out process actually, ideas for articles can come at any point and contacting and working with printmakers fits around their schedule
and mine (I also run a design company – www.coecreative.com). I usually have an angle/approach
in mind when I contact an artist and sometimes even some ideas for page layouts and then we work along with a writer and photographer to create unique
content for the magazine. Saying that, some pieces come together very quickly and stay the same as my initial designs if I am happy with them. The
whole magazine goes through a proofing process, we get final advert artwork and anything else from people and then its sent off to the printers. Seeing
the magazine on the press, especially the cover, is a joy and a very exciting moment after the months of work leading up to it.
How and where did you learn to make magazines?
I am a self-taught graphic designer, and I have always followed my interests and tried to make them part of my working practice. My first foray into magazine
design was probably doing zines for my band back in the 90’s… there was a lot more photocopying and pasting things then, but the idea was the
same – trying to tell stories and connect with people. I founded a magazine about cycling (http://boneshakermag.com)
some time ago and it was really on that where I learnt everything, not only about designing them, but how to sell them, working with stockists and
so on. I also worked as an art director in Hamburg on an outdoors magazine for a couple of issues and as that was for a large publisher, I got to see
how things are done differently to independent publishing. Pressing Matters is a publication born out of all of this experience and of course my love
of all things ‘printmaking!’
Why printmaking?
I guess it’s been ever present in my design practice, be it though creating some prints for Boneshaker magazine, buying books on graphic design and being
drawn to letterpress poster artwork and typography. I signed on as a printmaking student 2 years ago at Spike Print in Bristol and have just finished
two One Year courses, covering all aspects of printmaking and this year focusing on screen printing. I hope to do more courses next year, with a Woodcut
course at Cato Press turning my head currently…!
Where do you work?
Design wise, I work from a converted bothy that is in my garden (we live next to an old house that used to have a large garden and this was a workspace
for the gardeners originally). I design the magazine from here mostly, and get out to coffee shops and shared workspaces when I can. I do smaller printmaking
from home, mainly on the kitchen table as everything is nearby (I mainly do linocut at home) and have worked from Spike Print of the last couple of
years and am now thinking of joining as a member.
Describe a typical day in your studio.
At the moment, a typical day is trying to get through my client work as quickly as possible, so that I can do the fun stuff – working on the magazine…
I try to finish up on client work by 4 pm and then do a couple of hours a day on the magazine, but often that’s taken up by chasing content, emailing
and so on. I do block out whole days for the mag and that’s when I get the most work done.
How long have you been making the magazine?
The idea for the magazine came about when I first started my course 2 years ago. Once I had committed to doing it, it took about 6-8 months to get all
the ideas, layouts and content together for issue 1. This is longer than other issues will take, as I was starting from scratch. Issue 1 was released
in May and we were lucky enough to sell out of our 1,000 copy print run in about a month, so we did a reprint of that issue… Issue 2 is due
out in October and I hope to do 3-4 issues a year from 2018…
What inspires you?
I am inspired by all of the brilliant printmaking work from all around the world. Instagram has been a real success for the magazine, with a really diverse
set of followers and heaps of ideas for articles and people to talk to about work, etc. Personally, in my own print work, I am inspired by the illustrative
work of Evan Hecox, Adrian Tomine and Jeffrey Alan Love. I really love texture and narrative and am always sketching, collecting old books and taking
photos in a magpie fashion – this often leads to a bit of a mash up of ideas, the strong ones hopefully coming together in an idea for a print.
Where do you sell the magazine?
The magazine is available online at https://www.pressingmattersmag.com (and also in the
Handprinted shop) along with a few stockists around the UK and Europe.
What will we be seeing from you next?
Issue 2 is out around October time and we are planning on having stalls at the Brighton Print Fair, InkPaper&Print in Eastbourne and Sheffield Print
Fair in the winter once the mag is out. There is also talk of a couple of print fairs in and around Bristol at the end of the year, so we will be having
some presence at those too. I plan to carry on sketching, getting my ideas down and potentially have some print work to sell via the Pressing Matters
website in the new year (along with some other printmakers’ work).
Do you have any advice for other printmakers and creatives?
Just keep making. Like the quote on the back of issue 1 (by the brilliant Corita Kent) says… “Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail.
There’s only make.” I have learnt so much over the last two years being a printmaking student and the people that I am connecting with via the mag
are driving me on creatively, so I’d say ‘make work, share it with people, make more work, discover possibilities… etc)…’
Pop in to Handprinted to pick up your copy of Pressing Matters magazine, or visit the website at www.pressingmattersmag.com.
One of the hardest things to do when printing a relief block (lino, vinyl or wood) is to print solid blocks of colour.
There are quite a few choices to make and if you get these right then your printing will be much easier.
When rolling out your ink it is tempting to roll out a thick layer onto the inking slab.
Rolling out a thick layer can lead to a few problems.
With your roller loaded with a smooth, even coating of ink roll the ink onto the lino. You will need to coat the roller many times so make sure you are
inking up next to the slab. Any cut marks in the lino will create an impression in the ink on the roller. Keep re inking on the slab to remove these
impressions so you do not transfer them to the lino. Make sure that when the lino is inked that the ink looks flat – tilting under a light will help
you to see this. If printing a solid, flat colour then ink in several directions. Try not to put the roller down on the lino or lift up from the lino
at 90′ – this will give you stripes of ink – think of your roller like an aeroplane landing or taking off! Don’t put pressure on the roller, this will
push ink into the cut lines. Try to keep the roller flat to the lino so you do not ink up the edges.
How you hold the baren is crucial. The handle is very short and it seems impossible at first to understand how you hold it. You should just tuck the tips
of your fingers under the strap and then fold down the rest of your hand to so that your knuckles and the heel of your hand is touching the baren.
You want to print using a circular motion putting lots of weight through the whole of your hand. A piece of silicon/baking paper is useful between the
baren and the paper. This is for a couple of reasons. If printing on finer paper the silicon paper will stop the baren wearing bits of the paper away.
The silicon paper will also help you to put lots of pressure through the baren but will allow it to still glide over the surface. Try to keep
the baren flat to the paper – especially at the edges so that you get sharp lines. The technique of holding a baren is the same if it is a simple
bamboo one or a highly engineered ball bearing one.
The ball bearing ones allow you to print large areas with less pressure.
The first print you take from a piece of lino always seems to be a little patchy and less dense in colour. After a couple of prints the transference of
ink will improve.
This speckled effect on the print is down to two issues – the paper is a little textured and the inking was insufficient. If you print using Ternes Burton Pins and Tabs you could re ink and print again to resolve this issue. The Ternes Burton system is brilliant – not just for reduction printmaking
but also for ensuring that your print block is placed in the correct position on your paper. Paper is an expensive part of printmaking so not wasting
any is crucial.
A small speck of something (possibly a piece of stray lino) had stuck to the plate whilst inking up. This foreign body held the paper away from the ink
so creates an area that will not print.
Hello, My name is Hayley and for the past week I have been at Handprinted for work experience. I have loved every minute of it especially when I took part
in the screen printing work shop onto fabric. It was my first time screen printing and I cannot wait to do it again. We began the workshop with screen
printing using a paper stencil where the lovely Shirley did a tutorial on preparation and stencil cutting.
After preparing our screens, choosing a design and cutting out our stencils it was time to do my first print ever which was very exciting. I really enjoyed
using the paper stencils as it demonstrated another way to screen print not using exposure. I also enjoyed seeing what everyone else had made using
their paper stencils, we had a a wide variety of prints from stars to clouds in an assortment of vibrant colours.
Once we had practised and got a good technique we could move on to a larger piece of fabric and choose our final designs. We could either use a mix of
paper stencils and screen exposure or just go straight on to the exposure technique. I choose to incorporate both as I really liked using the paper
stencils. For my final design I wanted to use elements of nature so for the paper stencil element I cut out a toadstool and made up a vibrant red dye
(which turned out to be extremely difficult to make).
The next step was to prepare our screens for exposure – this meant drawing our designs onto film and putting the green emulsion (which oddly smelt like
PVA glue) onto our screens. This bit was slightly scary as it was difficult to get the right technique in order to not spill the liquid everywhere
and to get a nice even spread. We than left the screen in a dark heated cupboard for 20 minutes – during this time we got to enjoy our lunch.
Our next job was to use the exposure machine which went on for 5 minutes 30 seconds with our screens and designs in. We quickly jet washed the loose
emulsion off before it set leaving us no design left to print (which would have been very disappointing). Once we dried the screen it was ready
to print!
To print my feathers I used a gorgeous duck egg blue as I believed it would compliment the vibrant red. This part was extremely interesting as you
got see everyone’s designs and placements of the screen. Below are some of the final products.
At the end of the session I had some time to experiment with my screen so I tried to make and ombre using red and purple colours.- This was very fun
as I did not have to worry about being exact.
I really enjoyed this workshop (and my entire experience at Handprinted) and would recommend the workshops to anyone no matter your ability of printing.
The whole team here are so lovely and accommodating plus, if you are lucky, you may even get free tea and cake (or coffee if you prefer.)
I (Shirley) have been on a trip to Tokyo to attend a five day Mokuhanga course (Japanese Woodblock) and to meet with a few of our suppliers. I have never
been anywhere like Tokyo before so it was an experience on lots of different levels. I have been lucky enough to attend a couple of Laura Boswell’s courses (her courses with us are full for 2017 but her 2018 courses will be on the website soon!)
My first print was Sycamore Seeds. It was a three block print. I wanted a bit of Bokashi printing (graduation of colour). Mokuhanga printmaking uses water
colour or gouache paints and Nori (rice paste). You apply the paints to the ply with printing brushes.
The cutting is the bit that seems to take the most time but the printing is the bit that is the hardest to get right. Our teacher only spoke Japanese (we
were lucky as we did have a translator). One word he said more than any other sounded like ‘squashy’ which means less! – I always seemed to be using
too much Nori paste which caused me lots of problems.
You register each print using Kento marks (registration marks) that you carve into the blocks. These have to be in exactly the same place for each layer
or the elements will not register successfully.
The finished print.
For my second print I wanted to try something a little more complicated and use the layering of the blocks to create extra colours.
This was another three layer print. Using three colours of paint and the colour of the paper to create six different colours.
Working out colours in my sketchbook and yet again I was using too much Nori. ‘Squashy’ the instructor said once more!
One other thing that I learnt whilst in Japan is that Kit Kat can come in many different flavours – this one is Matcha. Not one of my favourites!
After the course finished I had a few days meeting with suppliers and a couple of Mokuhanga artists.
I loved seeing the work of Katsutoshi Yuasa – his website can be viewed here
He works using photography but cutting the images all by hand in the traditional way. His prints are so alive that you felt that they were three dimensional.
He used the traditional artform of Mokuhanga in such a modern way. His latest work is mostly printed using CMYK.
He has two pieces in this years Summer Exhibition at the Royal College of Art which runs till the 20th August – so if you are in London it is a must see.
I spent a lot of time looking for new suppliers and going to beautiful art shops. Brushes are very valued in Japan and are made from a few different animals
Summer Deer, Goat and Horse tend to be used for different purposes for Mokuhanga.
One of my favourite shops was Pigment – can you guess what it sells? Unbelievably beautiful rows and rows of pigments in every shade you could imagine.
We will be increasing the supplies we stock from Japan – hopefully they will start appearing on the site in the next few weeks.
Sayonara Tokyo I hope to come back soon!
Batik can be a really fiddly process that may seem a little scary to try at first – but it doesn’t have to be! In this project we have layered wax and
dyes to create a wonderfully abstract fabric design that can be used for embroidery, quilting, lampshades, clothing or just a piece of artwork in its
own right. It’s so much fun to play around with batik in this way and to surrender to being surprised by your outcome! Here’s how to create an abstract
layered batik:
Stretch your fabric out onto a batik frame using silk pins. A lightweight cotton works best – we used
Prima cotton.
Heat your wax pot so that the batik wax melts. We turn the dial to 5 1/2
on the Tixor Malam wax pot to get the wax nice and
hot without risk of smoking. The batik wax gives a slight crackle
whilst going on smoothly. Heat your tools in the batik pot. Use on natural fibre brushes in the wax or they will melt! When your brush has heated,
make marks on your cloth by splashing and dripping the wax. Keep dipping your brush into the wax to keep it hot. If the wax is not hot enough it will
turn white on the fabric, sit on the surface and won’t resist the dye.
Don’t make too many marks at this stage. Everything you have waxed will stay white in your finished batik so be mindful not to fill up all the space too
soon.
When you have completed your first waxing it’s time to mix the dye. Mix 1/2 tsp of Procion MX dye with 50ml of cold water. Mix this quantity for each of the colours you want to use. For this project I am using
Bright Turquoise, Lemon Yellow, Golden Yellow and Magenta. Put a pipette in each colour. Use the pipettes to take small quantities of dyes and mix your first colour.
Start with the palest colour you are going to use and work up through the tones getting darker and brighter. The colours will appear darker in the pot
than they do on the fabric and will dry paler still.
Mix up your chemical water. This will be your fixative, stopping your dyes from completely washing out of fading. Mix 5 tsp urea (colour brightener), 2 tsp soda ash (fixative)
and 1 tsp calgon (for hard water areas like ours) with 1/2 litre
of warm water.
This mixture will have a life of a couple of hours only. After this point it will no longer work to fix your dyes so mix up a fresh batch if this time
has elapsed.
Add your chemical water to the dye mixture you have just made. You want at least the same amount of chemical water to dye.
Use your dye mixture to paint onto your cloth. Use a different brush to your wax brush and don’t muddle them up. Allow your dye to dry completely. You
can speed up this process by using a hairdryer. Keep the hairdryer moving and on a cold setting to avoid melting the wax!
When the dye in completely dry, you’re ready for your second waxing. If the cloth is damp, the wax will sit on the surface and not resist the dye. Use
the paintbrush to add more marks and splashes or use a tjanting to draw lines and squiggles. Different tjantings have different sized spouts creating thinner or thicker lines.
Each time you add wax, you are preserving the colour beneath it. These wax lines will stay yellow when the next dye colour is put on top.
To mix your new dye colour, add more dye and chemical water to your first colour. This will help you build up the tones so that you know each layer will
work well over the last.
Use larger brushes to swipe larger wax marks on your cloth – just make sure the wax is hot enough to show a darker greasy mark when applied.
Again, add to your dye mix with more colour and fixative, going darker and bolder each time.
Build up more wax when the cloth is completely dry.
You can use your pipette to add spots of rich bright colour or spot with a smaller paintbrush. The dye will spread over the wet cloth, stopping at waxed
areas.
To create even more interesting marks try some sgraffito – use a tool such as an etching needle to scratch into the wax. This will create lines for the dye to access the fabric creating delicate dyed lines with
furry edges.
When you’ve built up your layers so that there is not much unwaxed cloth you’re ready to crackle and dip dye. If you like the look of your fabric at this
stage then you can stop now and skip ahead to ironing the wax out. Crackling your batik will completely transform your design, making it much more
complex and textured.
If you want to crackle your design, use a large natural fibre brush to cover your whole batik in a layer of wax.
Allow the wax to cool and harden before scrunching up your batik. This will crack the wax, revealing areas of fabric for the dye to penetrate. The more
you scrunch your batik, the more crackle you will get as more dye is allowed to get in to your cloth. We scrunched this batik A LOT so that lots of
dye can get in. You never quite know what you’re going to get after you’ve crackled so it’s always exciting watching it happen!
Mix up a dip dye recipe in a bucket or washing up bowl using 2tsp dye, 2tsp soda ash and 300ml water. We used a mixture of Black, Lemon Yellow and Bright
Turquoise dye to get a sludgy green.
Wear gloves as this dye will stain hands and clothing. Un-scrunch your batik and press it into the dye. You can see the dye getting into the fabric and
dyeing where the wax is cracked.
Once the fabric is covered, remove it from the dye bath and lay it out to dry. Blot off excess dye with kitchen paper.
When it has dried it’s time to remove the wax. Place your batik on a large wad of newspaper and place another piece on top. Use a hot iron all over the
newspaper. As the wax melts it will saturate the newspaper. When one piece has been saturated, throw it away and replace. Continue until very little
wax is coming out of the cloth.
It’s best to use a separate iron here to the one you use for your clothing or sewing as it can get a little waxy. If your iron starts to smoke at all,
turn it off at the plug to cool down and then wipe away any excess wax from the surface.
When you have finished ironing, your batik is finished! This one has a lot of crackle where the dye has penetrated the cloth, creating lots of weird and
wonderful textures and patterns.
If you intend to use your batik for clothing or home-wares you will need to remove the remaining wax (if not, skip this final step). You can do this by
either:
Be aware though, after the wax is removed the batik will appear paler (especially if it is over boiled)! It’s better to go bold and bright with your dyes
to allow for a little fading at this point.
To complete this project you will need:
Hello! My name is Jenny Sibthorp and I’m a textile designer based in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset. I work predominantly with screen printed linen and
leather, although some of my designs are now reproduced onto stationery and culinary ware too.
Describe your printmaking process.
Screen printing. All of my designs start off hand drawn and the repeat and design is tweaked until I’m happy with the result.
How and where did you learn to print?
I’m largely self taught. I screen printed at school a few times, then had a very long break, before taking a basic screen printing evening course at
Arts University Bournemouth. I relied heavily on YouTube and a lot of books to get me going, and as always the best way to learn I find, is trial
and error!
Why printmaking?
I’ve always loved pattern and colour. It was whilst taking evening upholstery classes in London that I realised I wanted to try and find a way to work
with my hands for a living and printing seemed like a natural progression of that. Screen printing appealed as it was so transformative, so quick,
and so incredibly satisfying.
Where do you work?
I’m lucky enough to have my own studio on a farm near where I live. It’s very basic having once been part of a milking shed but I love it. I’ve built
the tables, the shelves, there’s a bat and a constant draught. It’s a constant work in progress but having a back door that opens onto a field
of lambs in the summer makes it pretty hard to beat.
Describe a typical day in your studio.
My daily routine varies according to the season. In Winter I’ll work at home in the mornings until the frost has thawed and it’s a workable temperature.
Come summer it’s early starts and late nights as it gets very hot in the middle of the day! It’s a heady mix of emails, admin and if I’m lucky
some printing. I usually have a long printing list to keep my stock levels up, and I’ll tweak this according to wholesale orders etc. Packing orders
and a post office run usually features too. As do plentiful supplies of coffee and BBC Radio 6 Music & Desert Island Discs.
How long have you been printmaking?
Officially, I’d say about 4 years now.
What inspires you?
The outside world: flora, fauna and nature more generally. I’m quite literal in my designing process at the moment.
What is your favourite printmaking product?
I love a good Speedball Fabric Screen Printing Ink.
I find they mix really well and give great coverage.
What have you made that you are most proud of?
That’s a hard question. I guess upholstering my first ever chair using my own fabric was a pretty huge moment.
Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?
I sell on my own website, etsy, notonthehighstreet, share a local shop with fellow creatives
in Wareham and regularly turn up at markets in Bridport, London and beyond. But I’m also very lucky to have acquired some pretty cool stockists
over the past few years across the UK and a few in Europe now too. Last year my biggest stockist was Anthropologie EU which was particularly exciting
and this year I’m absolutely thrilled that I’ve just finished off a large order for the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford. I can’t wait
to go visit.
What will we be seeing from you next?
A new collection is long overdue and I really want to develop my skills in paper for limited edition prints too.
Do you have any advice for other printmakers and creatives?
Make mistakes, lots of them, both as a learning method and also because sometimes the things that didn’t come out as I planned end up being much much
better than I could have ever imagined!
To see more of Jenny’s wonderful work, visit her website or follow on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Lennie & Co create unisex clothing for kids, that feature playful prints that capture the fun of being little. Created by graphic designer and mother,
Amy Walker, Lennie & Co. is a collection of stylish kidswear that works hard and plays harder.
Describe your printmaking process.
In the early days I block printed personlised t-shirts letter by letter but once business grew I couldn’t continue as it was so time consuming. I knew
I had to teach myself to screen print. I visited a local studio in Devon and got some tips from them, watched lots of YouTube videos. I like the art
of screen printing, it is more than just sealing a design to a t-shirt, the method makes it more authentic. There are a lot of heat transfer applications
about and I didn’t want to go down that route.
How and where did you learn to print?
I started the business by block printing using foam hand cut stamps. It was all very accidental as I was having a craft day with my son Lennox making bunting.
Then I had a go at block printing a t-shirt and the rest was history.
Why printmaking?
I’m a graphic designer and whilst I had always had a huge interest in screen printing I had never done it. My house is filled with limited edition screen
prints. I like the craft behind it, it always feels so much more authentic then a digital print and that you own a piece of the artist and their passion.
Where do you work?
We moved house last year and I converted our garage into a studio. Before than I was working in the spare room… You can imagine the carpet got a tad
messy. It’s nice to close myself off in the studio to work rather than it intruding on our family home.
Describe a typical day in your studio.
Well I still work full time so as you can imagine days differ heavily. This morning (Saturday) I woke at 5:30am to crack on with a wholesale order of our
Sibling Series T-Shirts. They’re just a one colour print so quite an easy task. Other days consist of designing prints for upcoming season. They start
something solely on the computer or some from hand drawn elements. I design all of our prints and hand print our slogan t-shirts.
How long have you been printmaking?
Two and a half years as a screen printer, although I studied Creative Art at college and Fashion at uni which allowed me to experiment.
What inspires you?
Mainly my son, the funny things he says but definitely the area we live in too. We live on the South Devon coast and I spend time with a coffee watching
the weather rolling over the sea. Beach huts, pebbles, shadows. I feel very lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country which allows me to
relax and have a great work/life balance.
What is your favourite printmaking product?
An odd and unexpected one but my ikea kids plastic cutlery. I spread ink with them, mix ink with them and use them for everything when printing. Random
but I’d be lost with out them.
What are you most proud of?
Last year I sent a handful of my screen printed t-shirts to enter the Junior Design Awards. The awards are a recognised national competition for Children’s
brands form the UK and overseas, which include the like of M&S and Mothercare as well as independent businesses. I came Silver in the Best Emerging
brand. That was a rather exciting moment!
Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?
Our full range is available though our website www.lennieandco.co.uk. We are also available
on Not On The Highstreet and a handful of small online children’s stores.
What will we be seeing from you next?
Our summer range launches on May 24th. Which features lots of fun and colourful prints ready for the sunshine!
Do you have any advice for other printmakers and creatives?
Go for it! Be experimental if you have time. Time is normally my worst enemy to create new concepts but if I had more of it I’d love to venture into more
detailed printing.
See more of Lennie and Co’s prints on their website!
Our Handprinted Tea Towel Exchange for WaterAid is in full swing! Yesterday we opened the studio to anyone wanting to print their three tea towels and we got some lovely results.
Tea towels aren’t due in to us until the end of June so there’s still time to take part. We’d love to raise lots of money for WaterAid so we would like to get as many people as we can to take part and donate!
Anyone can join in, you don’t have to be an expert printmaker – you don’t even need to have done any printing before. The tea towels can be any style
of design and use any techniques that you like – have a play and see what you can make! Post your three tea towels to us and receive three random tea
towels from other participants in return – a great way to see what other people are making! Scroll to the bottom of this page to see how to take part.
Here are a few pictures from the day showing the prints being made.
Diane, Rebecca and Gill working on their prints
Rebecca’s linocut
Rebecca used Caligo Relief Inks to print her tea towels
Rebecca and Gill’s tea towels hanging up to dry
Diane’s tea towels hanging up to dry
Gill’s finished tea towel
The beginning of Holly’s drawing for an exposed screen
The finished drawing for Holly’s exposed screen
Holly’s exposed screen
Holly’s finished tea towel
Angela’s inked up lino blocks
Angela’s finished tea towel
Watch a quick video to see Angela’s tea towels being printed on our etching press last night:
Want to join in? Here’s how:
Step 1: Click here to donate to WaterAid
via our Just Giving page – we suggest a donation of £10
Step 2: Sign up for the exchange either by popping into the Handprinted Shop or clicking here to
register as a postal participant.
Postal participants are charged £1.60 which will go towards covering postage expenses – absolutely no profit will be made from postage costs. Entrants
anywhere within Europe can join in too!
Step 3: Print your tea towels! Show us what you’re making using the hashtag #teatowelsforwateraid
Step 4: Get your tea towels to us by 30th June – drop them off at our Bognor Regis shop or post to: Handprinted, 22 Arun Business Park,
Shripney Road, Bognor Regis, PO22 9SX. Please include your name and address so we know who the tea towels are from.
Step 5: Receive your three random tea towels! Pick up from the shop or receive them in the post. We will send the tea towels out in mid
July. Show us what your received using the hashtag #teatowelsforwateraid
We have just launched our Ready Made Thermofaxes in a
smaller size. The designs are the same as the Medium Ready Mades – just smaller (most images are about 6cm square). Thermofaxes are like a light weight
screen and are great for printing your own textiles or papers. If you don’t know what a Thermofax is hop over to our earlier blog here.
We get lots of enquiries from customer’s wanting to create their own labels and brand their products. There are a couple of options we recommend for this
depending on the product and what kind of image the branding is, some people carve a stamp from Speedy Carve or MasterCut and use this with Versacraft ink pads, others send us their designs and order an exposed screen. The alternative to an exposed screen would be a Thermofax. A Thermofax is not as hard wearing as a screen but is
more lightweight and cheaper. The designs are little less accurate as a Thermofax screen is made by hand so the tension of the mesh is not so tight.
The great thing about Thermofax screens is that they can be used for printing on paper or on textiles. We recommend using either fabric screen printing inks or fabric paints for printing on textiles and acrylic screen printing inks for paper or card.
If printing on paper is is recommended that you use a light squirt of something like Spray Mount to keep the paper in place when printing.
If you are printing on fabric it is always recommended that you pin your fabric to your padded print surface – to ensure you get a sharp print.
We have also made Thermofax screens for customers fed up of sewing name tags into uniforms – what a time saving idea!
