Printing My Logo
Hello everyone! In this month’s vlog, I document my current printing process and test out new materials by making a printing plate for my logo! Mini designs are great for when you learn something new, so I was happy to carve out my logo. You’ll now see my logo printed on the backs of my products :)
Materials Used:
Speedball Speedy Carve Block (*new material for me)
Speedball Fabric and Paper Block Printing Ink, multiple colors (*)
Canvas tote bags (*)
Graphite paper
Sharpies
Ball point pens
Mikisyo Power Grip carving tools
Flexcut Slipstrop
Non slip mat
Inking plate
Brayer
Ink knife
Newsprint
Transferring a Design
After making a design, the first step is to carve it out on a printmaking plate. You’d first reverse the image (because the final image will be reversed when printed, so if you reverse the design at the beginning, it’ll look correct on the paper). Then, what I currently do is print out the design and then transfer the image onto the block using graphite paper and a ball point pen to trace it on. Once transferred, I then “lock” the image into the plate by going over the lines with Sharpie. If you’re new at printmaking, one thing I recommend before transferring an image onto the block is to tint the block with acrylic ink. It makes it easier when you’re carving to see where you have and haven’t carved on your block.
Carving
Up next is my favorite part of the process! Carving is quite soothing to me; it feels good to zone out and get in flow of creating. I use my carving tools to carve out the parts of the block that I don’t want inked (i.e. the non Sharpied parts).
Printing
Once you’re done carving, you can start printing. Ink up the inking plate with your brayer and roll the ink on your plate. This is where you’ll do a lot of guessing and checking to see if you have the right amount of ink on your block. Do test prints with newsprint on your printing press. When you’re confident, move onto printing on your final piece. If you’re printing on fabric, you’ll typically need more ink than you would use for paper because the fabric will absorb the ink. Thicker fabric like canvas will result in less slippage.
Review of New Materials
I’m quite pleased with the ink I tried out. It works well for both paper and fabric. I’ve heard it doesn’t have as much longevity as oil based fabric inks, but for a beginner set it’s good.
As for the carving blocks, I’m quite disappointed in them. The pink Speedy Carve blocks have a light resistance to them, which I feel can cause more carving slips. The block was good with large areas of carving, but it was harder to do clean details with them. It was also a tad bit difficult to transfer an image on them with my current method. A couple days ago I tried their blue Speedy Cut Easy blocks and man, they were a looooot worse than the Speedy Carves. It felt like carving out of an eraser! If you want fine, crisp details, it’s terrible. You’re not going to get clean marks out of the Speedy Cut blocks because the knives would pull and not cut through the block no matter how sharp I made them. Not only that, the Speedball blocks are quite expensive! I personally prefer battleship gray linoleum because you can buy them mounted or unmounted, and you can buy them in bulk.
Wrap Up
For visuals on how to print, please check out the original video (click the thumbnail above). For questions or suggestions, please leave a comment or shoot me an email! :D
