Stardust from outer space! Carborundum is a form of stardust originating outside the solar system. It was discovered in a meteorite that landed in Arizona. Because of its interstellar origins it is very rare and only minute...
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Caustic soda is a powerful chemical that works really well for etching lino. Like many useful substances it also comes with dangers, but if you plan your work space, understand the risks, and use it carefully it will enable you to create beautiful textured lino plates.
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I have been experimenting with using flexible clear pvc as a relief printing plate. So far it seems to be a great material that makes all parts of the process from transferring original designs to registering plates much easier. Lino printing is not my main technique so I may have missed something – but I’d say clear pvc printing plates are definitely worth a go if youhave never tried them.
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Nowadays the shellac you come across is usually in a nail bar. Here we are looking at a different material – the original shellac. Find out why this is a really useful varnish and sealant for printmakers, particularly when making collagraph plates.
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The urgent need to print can strike at any time: I was getting stuck into some serious gardening and started to move a stack of concrete paving slabs, which had been leaning up vertically for some time.
Between two slabs I discovered a wonderfulconstruction, like a map of abandoned catacombs. The work of thousands of ants, now long gone.
Here was inspiration – I urgently needed to preserve it as I could already feel a print forming in my mind.
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Viscosity printing is a subtle technique with the potential for endless variations, it can completely change the prints you get from a plate and lead you into new and untried colour combinations, in fact you will find that combinations you would never think of using actually work very well in the viscosity method.
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