Lino prints

I have been inspired by the English Eccentrics to experiment with block printing. They used wood block printing, however I have used lino as it is easier to cut intricate patterns into.

The print design is taken from one of the drawings I did of a gold belt buckle. I picked out key shapes I liked from the drawing:

 

 

I chose this particular fabric to print on as it reminded me of bark cloth...

a fabric used by tribal people across Asia, Africa and the Pacific islands. I wanted to include this information to link back to how Henry Moore was inspired by tribal historical references as was I inspired by the Maori tribe. I also think the lino print itself has turned out looking quite tribal.

 

A huge advantage of printing using a block printing method is that it allows rubbings to be made of the surface, which has meant I was able to explore how I wanted my pattern to repeat before physically inking it up and printing it. 

Working over the top of one of the rubbings in ink. I wanted to add greater detail to the potential print, reflect the amazing details on the Sutton Hoo treasures. The pattern I did ontop of the rubbings was again, like the print itself, taken from one of my original drawings.

 

Photoshop of the Lino rubbing I worked into above, showing how the design could potentially look if turned into a home furnishing fabric.

I have lino printed a second piece of fabric. I used one of the two lino blocks I used in the first print, but worked into it further, creating more scratches and areas of detail. I wanted to give the print more of a hand drawn quality, however I feel I should have scratched into it even further to achieve the effect I wanted.

I printed in a dark red to reflect the garnets in a shoulder clasp I draw from.

 Above I explored drawing into the lino using Biro, inspired the liner sketchy style of Henry Moore's prints, however, I don't think the Biro was a strong enough drawing medium compared against the bold ink of the lino print. I draw in blue and black Biro to see if one was stronger then the other, but they both looked faint against the lino print. I  used blue as I was inspired by the many intense colours of the gems in the Sutton Hoo treasures.