Charlotte Pembroke
Why Lino Printing Suits the Kitchen Table
Lino printing is one of the friendliest ways into printmaking, and it needs barely more space than a chopping board. You carve a design into a soft block, roll it with ink, press it onto paper or fabric, and lift off a mirror image of your carving. The whole thing takes maybe twenty minutes once you know the rhythm, and the kit lives happily in a shoebox under the stairs.
What makes it genuinely beginner-proof is that mistakes rarely ruin anything. A slipped gouge just becomes part of the design, or gets carved away in the next version. Blocks can be re-inked dozens of times, so you can print a run of Christmas cards, a metre of wrapping paper and a few fabric patches from a single afternoon's carving. If you have ever fancied the look of hand-printed wallpaper but not the price tag, this is your route in.
The Kit You Actually Need
Skip the professional presses and expensive starter sets that include things you will never touch. Here is the honest shortlist:
- A soft block. Traditional grey lino is hard work for beginners. Look for soft-cut vinyl or rubber carving blocks, usually sold in 3mm and 5mm thicknesses. The 3mm is ideal for cards and paper; 5mm gives you deeper relief for fabric.
- A safety lino cutter with interchangeable blades. The handle holds a small V-shaped blade for fine lines and a U-shaped blade for clearing larger areas. Always keep spare blades.
- A bench hook or a non-slip mat. This stops the block sliding while you carve. A cheap bench hook is worth every penny and your fingertips will thank you.
- A soft rubber brayer (roller), about 60mm wide, for applying ink evenly.
- Water-based relief ink. Easy to clean up with warm soapy water, low odour, and safe to use at the kitchen table.
- An inking plate. An old glass chopping board, a tile or a square of acrylic works fine.
- Paper. Cartridge paper, brown kraft paper or blank cards with a smooth-ish surface.
Add a wooden spoon or a Japanese baren for burnishing, a roll of masking tape, and an apron. That is genuinely it.
Designing and Transferring Your First Image
Start small and bold. A finished block around 7cm by 10cm is plenty for a first attempt, and simple shapes read far better than fussy detail. Think a single oak leaf, a sprig of lavender, a stylised robin, a row of little houses, or a repeating scallop pattern for a border.
Remember that anything you carve away stays white, and anything left standing prints in colour. That reversal trips up almost everyone at first. Sketch your design in pencil at actual size, then either draw straight onto the block with a soft pencil or place the drawing face down on the block and rub the back of the paper with a spoon to transfer the graphite. If you are lucky enough to have a photocopy, ironing it face down onto the block works beautifully too.
Shade the areas you plan to carve out so you do not lose track halfway through. A light pencil scribble is enough.
Cutting Safely, and Cutting Well
Warm the block slightly first. Tucking it under your arm for five minutes, or popping it on a radiator, makes soft-cut blocks glide and traditional lino far more forgiving. Cold blocks are brittle and cause slips.
The golden rule is simple: always cut away from your body, and never let your free hand sit in front of the blade. Keep both hands behind the cutting edge and turn the block, not the tool, when you change direction.
Work in shallow passes rather than trying to gouge out a whole shape at once. Three light cuts give you more control than one deep one. Use the V blade for outlines and thin lines, and the U blade to clear backgrounds and large areas, working in tidy rows. Change the blade the moment it starts dragging, because a blunt blade needs more pressure, and more pressure is what causes accidents.
When you have finished, ink the block lightly and press it onto scrap paper. That first proof tells you instantly what needs more clearing out.
Printing: Ink, Pressure and Repeat Patterns
Squeeze a little ink onto your plate and roll it out until the brayer makes a soft, sticky Velcro sound and the ink looks like orange peel. That is the moment to roll it over your block, in several directions, until the raised surface is evenly coated. Too little ink gives patchy prints; too much fills in your fine lines.
Place your paper on top carefully, then burnish with firm circles using the back of a spoon, pressing down rather than sliding sideways. Peel from one corner. Every print will be slightly different, and that is the charm of it.
For repeat patterns, make yourself a simple jig. Tape a piece of card to your table, align the block's corner against it, and mark a pencil line for the paper edge. Print one impression, move the paper along by the width of the block, and print again. Offcuts of card used as spacers keep your repeats consistently spaced for wrapping paper, borders and tile-like patterns.
For fabric patches, use ink labelled for fabric or mix a fabric medium into your relief ink following the instructions, print onto pre-washed cotton or linen, then heat set with an iron on the reverse for a few minutes once fully dry.
Clean-Up and Keeping Your Blocks
Water-based ink cleans up easily while wet, so wash the brayer, plate and any stray marks with warm soapy water straight away. Left to dry, it is much more stubborn. Wipe the block gently with a damp cloth without scrubbing the surface, then dry it flat.
Store blocks wrapped in greaseproof paper somewhere cool and flat, away from direct sunlight. They will keep for years, ready for a last-minute batch of birthday cards or a fabric patch for a school jumper. Once you have one block you are happy with, the temptation to carve a whole set is almost impossible to resist.
