My Block Printing Journey Part 1

Make It Work. © 2018 Alyson Toone All Rights Reserved

I’ve been tinkering. Inspired (and a little jelly) by some amazing printmakers on Instagram. Follow #SurfacePatternDesign or #Blockprinting and you will see marvelous things. I started creating linocuts at the end of last year. As shown here in the Make It Work piece. I embroidered on top of the print.

I liked the outcome but it wasn’t consistent. I wanted to explore more options. Clearly all those talented Instagram printmakers spent a lot of time learning and adjusting their practice. Also I have very little space so screenprinting isn’t a great option for me. Although it would be faster and more consistent.

I dove into creating prints by hand with a linocuts made with battleship grey linoleum and the pink soft cut linoleum. I like the pink stuff better but shied away because of the price. It was difficult to commit to a small sheet of it when I had ideas for many projects.

Here are some of my linocut block print creations.