Non-backed lino

[ellemenope]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum, and new to printmaking. The only printmaking I've done was a linocut of a cat years ago with an art teacher.

I've decided to give it a try again, since I think my drawing style would adapt well to lino/wood cuts.

My local art/hobby shop had a very limited printmaking section, so I picked the one type of lino they had in the size I wanted, which is a very soft, black coloured lino with no backing and no rigidity.

Do I need to mount it on a wood block before I cut? If so, what glue/adhesive should I use?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[bridog]

Welcome
happy to hear another person is getting into printmaking
not sure what type of lino you purchased
you said it is black in colour but also not rigid...is it a really soft rubberlike material?

I am hestitant to make a suggestion about mounting this until I might know what the material you have is

[ellemenope]

Yes, its very flexible.

[bridog]

The product sounds like a black colour version of what I know as "easy cut" flexible printing block type material. It is probably between 2 - 3 mm in thickness and black throughout?
There is another product from Japan called Gomuban but it is green on one side and blue on the other with a dark black center and is rubberlike in nature.

If your material is either of these I don't think you need to worry about mounting these onto wood. Are you planning on using hand burnishing to produce the prints or do you have use of a press?
The Easy Cut stays flat. Traditional linoleum tends to bow from moisture getting into the jute backing I think. If there is no jute then I think you don't have to worry.

[ellemenope]

That looks like the right material.

I was hoping to be able to hand burnish it. As a first project, I was planning on printing covers on a couple of soft-cover Moleskines, nothing too fancy.

I went to another branch of the same store today, this one located near a university with a fine arts program, but they only had the same stuff. Must say I'm a bit disappointed.

I'm a bit nervous about cutting since its so thick - how do I judge the depth of my cuts (or does it really not matter much)?

[bridog]

With hand burnishing I don't think a really deep depth cut is really needed. My experience is that anything around 1.5 mm in depth will print as negative space (white line) on your paper as long as your ink isn't too runny or you do not exert too much pressure with the hand burnishing during the printing stage.

[ellemenope]

Well, two full evenings of cutting later and I'm done! I'm so excited with the result. Since the material was so rubbery, I just using a rubber-stamp archival ink and it turned out fine.

I don't know if its the material, or my technique, but I found myself having to pick/rip-off the ends of many of my 'strokes'. Maybe because I was working so small?

I was too impatient to fully figure out the design before I went at it, so I'm not fully satisfied with the composition (a bit too dark on the top-half). Still, I'm thrilled for my first try!

I couldn't get the image uploader to work, so click here to view.