The day we ruined the kitchen floor and tried lino printing!

For this session one of our group members, Debbie, took the lead as she is keen on Lino printing and has produced some outstanding art work using this technique. First of all you need lino. We recommend buying some proper artists lino as the stuff off the kitchen floor is very hard to cut into. A top tip from one of our volunteers Sian though is to gently heat it before you cut into it.

You also need some special shaped tool that allow you to make different cuts into the lino as shown above. We sketched our designs on different piece then set about cutting. It is tricky to start off but as you become more confident you find yourself creating smooth lines. When you are happy with your cut you then roll your lino with ink. We used printing ink. When you have a good coating drop your paper on top and smooth over it with your hand. The first print is usually poor as it takes a few goes for the lino to fully take up the ink so keep trying if your first print is poor.We were so absorbed we ran out of time so we had to do a second week!