During the April school holidays I worked with Georges River Council to produce four block printing workshops. We explored positive and negative space, artists throughout history that have worked with block prints. While we worked with foam to create our prints, participants also learnt about the different materials traditionally used by artists like wood, lino & rubber.
Follow along if you'd like to learn more about block printing and where to go from here. Participants worked with foam in this workshop. They'll be able to continue working at home by using a pencil to make more engravings.
Recommended Equipment & Materials:
In this workshop we carved into styrofoam like material. A great beginner kit to replicate what we used in the workshop would be this Essdee Block Printing Kit which comes with all the materials necessary. This kit is pretty age inclusive as there's no sharp tools required, as a pencil can be used to carve out their design.
You can also replicate what we did in the workshop using old styrofoam fruit trays.
A step up from that would be carving with sharp tools. Rubber is a great option for beginners as it's the easiest to carve into, it's soft and is literally made like a massive eraser so not much force is necessary. Just remember to keep the supporting hand behind the tool, to keep it out of harms way. This Speedball Rubber Stamp Making Kit is a great entry point. This kit can be paired with any ink stamp pads or paint you might already have in your home.
Lino was the other material we discussed. While it's a tougher material, it produces crisper edges. This Essdee Lino Block Printing Kit contains the lino material the engraving tools, brayer (roller) and ink necessary.
Reference books from Georges River Library:
We used the following books from the library collection. Both contain project based activities that kids can follow. The first one is slightly more text heavy and caters to more home decor project. Whereas I think the latter has projects aimed more towards kids.
House of print : a modern block printer's journey take on design, colour and pattern by Molly Mahon (Library Catalogue Link)
Beginner's guide to linocut : 10 print projects with top techniques to get you started by Susan Yeates (Library Catalogue Link)
Books from my collection:
V&A Sourcebook of Pattern & Ornament this is a fabulous reference book which contains objects from the V&A Museum in London, there are a number of block prints (and other art mediums) to take inspiration from and the book is categorised by the motifs - so you could browse by different types of animal, flowers and more. The examples covers textiles, jewellery and furniture.
Images of student work over the four sessions:
