tools Archives - Page 2 of 7

Excited about Back to school sales

I love it when the Back to School sales hit the local stores. I like to stock up on:

composition notebooks
erasers
Glue
scissors and more

This year I am hoping to find some novelty erasers in geometric shapes. I like to carve simple designs into the erasers. I found the basic pink eraser at the Dollar Tree Store and have carved quite a few fun little stamps.

I am not wishing summer away, just looking forward to some new and inexpensive art supplies. I encourage you to check out the back to schools sales in your area and see if you find some interesting art supplies.

In this post, I list a few more supplies that I like to stock up on. Happy printing!

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Printing with little spring flowers

inspiration, monotype print, tools / Linda Germain / May 7, 2021

Everything is starting to bloom in New England.

Today I gathered some violets and apple blossoms from the woods.

Then I plate with printing them with the XCut Xpress craft press.

I had some pleasing results.

I tried to keep the buds alive by keeping them in water until I was ready to print.

I just positioned the flower on dry print paper.
Covered with drawing paper and felt
Then ran it through the press

It is amazing the delicate details that are captured. Enjoy!

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Printing on Fabric – feel and use

fabric prints, printing inks, tools / Linda Germain / May 6, 2021

When choosing to monoprint on fabric you may want to think about:

your intended use for the printed fabric
how you want it to feel
does it need to be washable

I don’t always know what I will use the fabric for, but I often want it to feel soft and be washable. The main factor that affects these qualities is the kind of ink or paint that you print with.

I have tried lots of brands with monoprinting fabric on the gelatin plate. And I think every artist will have their own preference. You can read about my experience with the different inks in this blog post.

The other factor that affects the hand/feel of the material is how thickly you apply the ink. Often with monotype printing on paper, I can print several layers of ink and I try to limit the layers to 1 or 2 when printing on fabric.

If you would like to explore Monoprinting Fabric with the gelatin plate, then check out the details of the upcoming online class and join us.

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Build your design skills – gelatin printmaking

Gelatin plate print, masking stencils, techniques, tools / Linda Germain / April 14, 2021

Gelatin printmaking is fast and gives you immediate feedback about composition and design skills. That is one reason that I love the process.

Art school teaches us to make thumbnail drawings and plan our composition first. I just don’t have the patience for that approach.

I like the trial and error approach of making lots of prints. And over time my design skills have grown and I had fun in the process. And I want to share that approach and what I have learned with you in the online printmaking workshops.

We will create growth and success by:

Getting to know your masking stencils and how to get strong impressions
Limiting the colors so we can create prints with a strong range of value
Using a small standard size paper to get a dynamic division of space

These boundaries will give you the structure to support new understanding of the tools and how the impressions are created. This should create success and happiness!