Category Archives: printmaking

Scratch Foam-Printed T-Shirt

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Materials: T-shirt, scratch foam, textile paint (or liquid acrylics); brayer or foam paint brush

After we made prints with scratch foam, I had the idea in the back of my head that it would be cool to make t-shirts with that method. When the boys began talking about their ideas for shirts, though, it became clear that their ideas were better suited to a different technique–so I’ll talk about their shirts in the next post. Meanwhile, G wanted an orange butterfly on a yellow shirt. On the one hand, I always, always want my kids to reach for their vision themselves–if they’re making the t-shirt, then they should make the t-shirt. On the other hand, I didn’t want G to be disappointed if she didn’t end up with a butterfly.

After thinking it over, I asked her what she thought about this: I could cut a butterfly shape out of scratch foam, and she could draw on the inside to add the decorations. She agreed to that, so after consulting her on how big the butterfly should be, we got to work.

My camera had a hard time figuring out what to focus on, with that white butterfly against the white table! But here, G is scratching into the cut-out foam butterfly. She started with a bone folder and a wooden tool for sculpting clay. Then we went hunting around the house and came back with a comb and a boomerang. She also tried a toothpick. She worked on the foam for quite a while–close to a half hour, maybe?–making her marks.

Then we set the butterfly aside and mixed the paint. We used Speedball textile paint, but liquid acrylics would work as well (and don’t require heat setting with the iron). Our set has red, yellow, blue, green, black, and white–but no orange. So we mixed some.

Mixing paint colors is just a delight, isn’t it? “Orange!” exclaimed G. We adjusted until she was happy with the color.

I protected the inside of the shirt with some freezer paper–I just placed it inside, no need to iron it on–so that the paint didn’t bleed to the back of the shirt. Then we rolled the brayer and inked the plate. Except I’ve been having trouble with both my brayers this week–they roll just fine on some surfaces but not others, and the combination of the textile ink and the foam wasn’t working too well. (Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be?) So the paint more smeared than anything, and G used a foam paintbrush to even it out–so you can see some brush marks in the finished print (as always, you can click to embiggen the photos a bit).

I don’t have pictures of the actual printing, because I was helping. You don’t want the paint to be too thick, because then it will smoosh. Pick up the plate, place it paint-side down on the shirt, and gently but firmly smooth down the back. I placed the plate, but G helped with the pressing. “I want to see what happened,” she said. When it comes to printmaking, the reveal is always so much fun.

An orange butterfly on a yellow shirt–a collaboration that quite pleased the not-quite-three-year-old.

This project is easy–just remember that anytime you’re painting or printing on textiles, the paint won’t wash out of the clothes you’re wearing, either. I keep wet wipes handy, too, since any paint on fingers will transfer to the shirt you’re making. I haven’t quite made up my mind, but I think plain old liquid acrylics might be even better for this kind of printing on shirts (that’s what we’ve used in the past for making fish prints on shirts–with fish replicas). So don’t feel like you need special supplies–a plain t-shirt, some scratch foam (or a new Styrofoam meat or vegetable tray), a 59-cent bottle of paint and a foam paintbrush, and you’re ready to create some wearable art!

Making Prints While The Sun Shines: T-Shirts

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As always, click to embiggen all photos!

Materials: White t-shirts (the kids’ shirts are white undershirts–they’re great for dyeing); liquid acrylics; sponge brushes; leaves or other objects of your choice; sunny (but not windy) day; optional but helpful: a piece of Plexiglas to place inside the shirt, unless you don’t mind the paint seeping through to the back

I read lots of art/craft blogs, because the Internet is filled with great ideas, and often I find ideas on non-kid blogs that I can use with my children. One such ideas is sun-printing on fabric, which I first saw on Mary and Patch. I was surprised to see that it didn’t require any special sun-reactive paint, so I decided we’d give it a try. We actually gave it two tries, and as I go I’ll share what we learned during our first, semi-successful attempt.

First, I wanted something firm under the shirts, so I slipped some Plexiglas into mine and my oldest son’s shirt, a piece of glass into my younger son’s, and the box part of a box frame into my toddler’s. We learned the first time that using cardboard will leave the texture of the cardboard on the shirt, so either put something smooth in there (like a file folder, if you don’t have Plexiglas) or accept that the paint will soak through–which isn’t a bad look either.

Next, spray the shirt with water to dampen it. This photo is from our first try; the second go-round we just moved the entire operation to the deck. I have one of our watercolor painting boards inside the shirt, which is another option.

I watered down our liquid acrylics, but I wasn’t exact about it. Liquid acrylics are the paints that you can find in craft stores in the little bottles, about $1 per bottle (for the big size!). They come in all sorts of colors, they don’t wash out, and we’ve used them successfully for printing and painting on shirts for years. So, squirt some paint into a jar, add some water, mix it up, and cover your shirt. We learned that if you want to mix colors, do it around the edges–if you overlap colors where you try to make the print, the print sort of gets lost.

Paint quickly! Spray some more if you have to, because you don’t want the paint to dry yet. Place your leaves and put the whole thing in the sun.

I sprayed our leaves with a bit more water to hold them in place, and then I thought later that we could have weighted them with small rocks. We learned it’s best to use full leaves. Ferns make really pretty sun paper prints, but they didn’t work so well on the shirts. Our shirts dried in an hour or less.

V’s shirt, which was mostly blue, didn’t show the prints much, so we decided to try overprinting. We could see some prints in the center, so he left those alone and added green around the edges. He followed the same procedure: he sprayed with water, painted, and then lay down the leaves.

It worked! Overprinting was successful:

Once the shirts were dry, I rinsed them out and washed and dried them like I would any laundry, in cold water. I’d do this first wash with something you don’t care about too much (like towels), but when I rinsed, the paint stayed put. From this point on I’ll wash them with the regular laundry with no worries.

N’s shirt came out really well. His was the only shirt from our first try that came out really well, too. His is on the left, and G’s is on the right. You can see her prints in person, but faintly. For some reason, blue paint didn’t make the best prints.

Although mine was blue, and it worked okay. One leaf blew over halfway through, so I’ve got a mutant leaf print on the lower left there!

For our first attempt, we used textile ink–specifically, Speedball screen printing inks, because we plan to print on t-shirts at some point too, so I bought some. It really didn’t work for this project. I’m not sure why I was seduced by the special textile paint when we’ve been using liquid acrylics for painting shirts for years and liquid acrylics don’t require me to heat set the shirt by ironing 3-5 minutes per side times four shirts–that’s a lot of ironing on a hot day!

Luckily, applying the paint with a brush created a sort of tie-dye effect, so even though the sun-printing didn’t work the first time, as V said, “It’s a nice red and blue shirt, anyway.” And N, especially, was interested in what we were figuring out as we went through the process–what colors worked best, what sort of leaves, what to try next. Because we generally approach art in a spirit of discovery, the kids weren’t terribly disappointed that it didn’t work the first time. We simply tried again, refining our process a bit until we got it right!

Making Prints While The Sun Shines: Paper

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Materials: Sun print paper, various items, Plexiglas (optional)

The other day, G and I experimented with the sun print paper that recently arrived. (I couldn’t find it locally, so I ended up ordering some.)

Buttons, maple leaves, fern

It’s really simple to use, and reminds me of my first darkroom assignment, aimed at getting us used to using the enlarger: we scattered various items across some photographic paper, exposed it in the darkroom, and then developed it. This works the same way. Inside, we arranged some items on the paper, blue side up. Because our items were flat, I sandwiched the paper between two pieces of Plexiglas before bringing it all outside. The sun was so strong that the paper paled within a minute or so, and then we dunked it in water to stop the reaction and “develop” it.

(I found the Plexiglas in a box of old darkroom supplies when I went looking for the piece of glass I used to use for contact sheets. I thought the glass would be handy for this, and ended up finding the four sheets of Plexiglas I used to use to cover the trays of chemicals. I cleaned them all off and have been finding uses for them ever since!)

Today, we got the boys involved. These are N’s papers:

Pattern blocks, Lego pieces, Hero Factory pieces

These are mine (the skate egg cases) and G’s:

Play pasta, pattern blocks, mermaid's purses (skate egg cases)

These are V’s and more of G’s:

Look closely--Lego figures!

The Plexiglas came in really handy–we arranged our items on the paper, which was on the Plexiglas, in the hallway inside, which, if all the doors are closed, doesn’t get much natural light. Then I was able to carry the Plexiglas outside without disturbing anything. We did this in the morning, and you might be able to see that shadows were cast. That made for some interesting prints, because the shadows also show up, but lighter. (Click to embiggen the photos a bit.)

V's prints on left; N's on right

N really liked how the sun shone through his Hero Factory pieces a bit, so those images weren’t as sharp. I love the Lego figure print on the bottom left.

G's (mostly) & mine

G was so deliberate in placing the pieces. The boys were, too, but G really took quite a while in arranging her blocks, pasta, and buttons. We like how she put one of N’s Hero Factory pieces half off the paper in the top left print up above there.

Remember my mermaid’s purse print? I didn’t realize I had two pieces of paper stuck together. (Note: Make sure your hands are completely dry from rinsing the last batch before you grab more paper!) We ended up with a ghost print, as N identified it–and although the term “ghost print” comes from monotype printing I’d say he used it correctly here:

Pretty cool and completely unexpected result! And also–phew, the sun beats on our deck pretty strongly in July!

As you might be able to tell by the title, we experimented with other forms of sun printing as well…more to come, as long as the sun keeps shining!

(You Can) Carve a Stamp

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(Originally published at Salamander Dreams in June 2011.)

Earlier in the week I carved a stamp as part of our end-of-year teacher gifts.finished compass stamp at amyhoodarts.com

It’s so easy and satisfying that I wanted to share the process. There are tutorials out there already, I know, but I carved my first stamp using the instructions in the book Print Workshop, and it was a fair bit of a hack job until I managed to translate the words into action, so I thought I’d post a picture of exactly how to hold those carving tools. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Materials
Speedball Speedy Carve block (you can cut this into smaller pieces easily using a straight edge and x-acto knife); set of linoleum cutting tools (I bought mine at a local craft store using a 50% off coupon); pencil; paper; bone folder (optional, but it works best for burnishing your image onto the block)

Process
The first thing you need is an image to turn into a stamp, obviously. You can use your own doodle or something you’ve printed out or photocopied, as long as available for personal use (I am so not getting into copyright here). I’m showing you an example of both. I prefer to turn my own doodles into stamps, because how fun is that? But for the teacher gifts, I wanted a stamp of the school logo, which looks like pretty basic clip art to me. I printed it out and went over all the black areas with pencil.

compass design at amyhoodarts.com

If it’s your own doodle, once you have something you’re happy with, go over the lines more darkly with your pencil. This is because next, you’re going to transfer those pencil lines to your carving block. (I cut mine into two-inch squares to make both of these stamps.)

transferred design

Here’s my compass rose…

Lay your image face-down onto the block and burnish–that means to rub firmly–the entire area with the bone folder, or your fingernail if you don’t have one. When you peel off the paper, your image will be on your block, in reverse, which is exactly what you want, because your stamped image is going to be the reverse of what you carve.

...and a little salamander I doodled.

…and a little salamander I doodled.

Now you’re ready to carve. Begin with the shallowest, narrowest tip for your tool–#1–and carefully carve around the outlines of your image. (For the salamander, I’m ignoring the interior lines–those were just there to help me draw, but they’re not getting carved out.) Hold the tool at a 45-degree angle and carve away from yourself. The tool is going to gently scoop the block away–I have to pause periodically and clear the peels out of the tool. Start shallow and gradually go deeper, and when you need to change direction, it’s easier to rotate the block and keep your hand steady.

carving stamp 1

I was doing this at night under daylight bulbs, hence the shadows. Also, I had to take the picture with my left hand, but you get the idea. Here’s another view.

carving stamp 2

You can see that this stamp has more detail than the salamander. The salamander is easy–I’m carving around it, because I want it to stamp as a solid. But the compass rose has some white areas and some dark areas in the interior–which do you carve? You carve out the white areas, because you want the dark areas to pick up ink. So I’m carefully carving away each of those open triangles so they don’t pick up any ink and the image prints correctly. (Ultimately, I carved a second version of this stamp–that’s the finished one at the top of the post–because I decided it made more sense to cut around the compass rose with an x-acto knife and then carve out the interior portions. Otherwise, I was losing my outline edge and it was just going to look like floating triangles!)

For the salamander, I used mostly the #1 tip–those bits between the legs and body are tight. Can you see where I carefully carved out the space between the front left leg and the body?

in process carved stamp

When it looks like I’m close to done, I start testing with some ink.

testing carved stamp

You can see all those lines I need to trim. Eventually I cut close around the salamander with the x-acto knife as well.

salamander stamp

For bigger stamps, I might leave them as they are, but for these smaller stamps, I glued each of them to a cork. Cork, whether repurposed (if you’re a wine drinker or know someone who is) or bought, makes a nice handle.

Carving a stamp is just one of those processes that is much easier than you think–you mainly need patience and a steady hand–and results in something that seems so impressive, at least to me. I don’t know why I’d ever buy a stamp again when I can just make whatever I want at home.

Also, it’s easy enough to do around the needs of kids–doodle when you can, carve a bit here and there (just make sure to keep those lino-cutting tools out of reach–they’re sharp!), and you can fit a stamp into the nooks and crannies of the day, if you wanted to. There’s nothing toxic, so you can carve a stamp while your kids do their own creative thing nearby. While I carved the compass rose, my daughter decorated a sheet of paper with smiley face stickers. Just be prepared for lots of little pink shavings, so carve your stamp on some newspaper so you can fold it up and easily tip all the mess into the trash.

Happy stamping! Let me know if you give it a try, or if you have other tips to share.

 

Seaweed Printing

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N wanted to try printing with crabs and seaweed, remember? So we gave it a try before the crabs completely decomposed–as it was, they were pretty stinky! (I’m going to repeat this here: The crabs were dead when we found them, I said we shouldn’t bring them home, but somehow, a few ended up in the bucket.). We were using Irish Moss, which has a definite shape which seemed conducive to printing (versus some of the grassy spready kinds of seaweed). I gathered some copy paper, small squares of watercolor paper, and large, heavy drawing paper, so we had some choices. The kids decided on liquid acrylics, and we began to experiment.

Somewhere under G’s hand is a piece of Irish Moss! I was the only one who had consistent success printing the seaweed. V tried printing the crab, but it really didn’t work (and then it began falling apart, ew!). G enjoyed just painting the crab without printing it, and I tried to print the underside of the carapace, but as I was painting it, a leg fell off. (It’s best to be amused by these occurrences…) V continued to work on printing with the seaweed, but N moved fairly quickly into using a large piece to apply paint to the paper.

The end result was very interesting:

V also decided to make some paintings that way:

I had the most luck with making actual prints:

I chose flatter pieces of Irish Moss and, after placing the painted side on the paper, I covered it with a piece of copy paper and smoothed it quite flat. I think we may have more success with this if we press the seaweed first; Action Pack 4 has simple instructions to make a flower press and I think we’ll bring one to the beach with us and see if it works with damp seaweed.

There’s nothing wrong with experimenting to see what happens, and we’re open to trying things out without being sure of the final result. Using the Irish Moss as a sort of paintbrush was satisfying in itself, and we’ll carry over what we learned if we try to make prints with seaweed again. We’ll keep our eyes open for large, flat pieces, too.

Have you printed with seaweed (or any other challenging items)? What did you learn?

Printmaking With Hot Glue

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Materials: Hot glue gun, acetate (we used this), paper, blockprinting ink, brayer, some sort of palette

Last week, we used Scratch-foam to make prints. The lines we carved into the foam stayed white, while everything else was inked. This week, we were adding to our plate by using hot glue. When the lines of hot glue dried, they were hard and raised, so theoretically the lines would get inked more than the surface.

The first step is to draw on the acetate with the hot glue. The boys and I made a pencil sketch on a piece of paper first, and then placed our sketch under the clear acetate so we could trace.

(The washing machine became our gluing station, so we could keep it separate from the inking and printing area!) It takes a bit of practice to get the feel for how the glue flows from the glue gun. It’s not easy. I suggested we all use simple designs, without a lot of detail, and not expect perfection.

With G, I pressed the trigger and she directed the gun. Here’s her plate.

Once the glue is dry, ink it with the brayer like any other printing plate. We used paper the same size as the acetate sheets, so we lined them up, pressed with our hands, and peeled. Here’s one of N’s. (Click to embiggen; these prints are much lighter than last week’s.)

And one of V’s.

You can see that a lot of the background comes through as well. This isn’t the best technique to use if you want a super clean line print, and V, especially, did not like this aspect. N was quite pleased with his prints. Both boys prefer the scratch-foam, but they agree we should try all the printmaking techniques we can so we know what’s at our disposal.

Here’s one of mine (top) and one of G’s (bottom).

G’s favorite part of printmaking, hands down, is rolling the ink-filled brayer on the plate. Perhaps I need to get her a mini paint roller…

We wondered later if it would have been possible to rub away some of the background ink with a paper towel before making a print, but it might be hard to “clean” the plate that way before the ink dried (water-soluble ink dries faster). When I used this technique with an actual press, the same thing happened with the background, so I don’t think we did anything wrong. It’s simply a different effect–and it’s good to know how to get various effects. The more tools and techniques we explore, the greater the chance that we’ll know just how to realize specific ideas.

One more picture–of the paper that was under the plate N was inking. I like how it looks!

We’re not done with printmaking yet. Stay tuned!

***

Do you have any favorite printmaking techniques?

Printmaking With Scratch-foam

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Materials: Scratch-foam, water-soluble block printing inks, brayers, paper, palette of some sort (we used wax paper because I couldn’t find freezer paper, and the acrylic portion of a box frame); items to scratch into the board with

I recently took a two-day printmaking/boookbinding class (blogged about here and here), and while I took it for my own benefit, I of course emerged with all sorts of ideas for things to do with the kids. But I’ve had Scratch-foam on my wish list for quite a while, just waiting for enough other items to jump in the cart to make shipping worthwhile! So this is what we began with–a very simple entryway into printmaking, completely accessible (you could try other paints besides block printing inks), and, like all forms of printmaking I’ve tried, wholly magical and fun.

The Scratch-foam sheets are 9×12, and I cut them in half so we were working with 9×6 plates. This not only doubles the number of scratch-foam sheets we have, it also enabled us to use regular printer/copy paper. I wanted the focus to be on experimenting, not worrying about using up special paper. (And as you’ll see at the end, we used lots of paper!)

I also told the boys they’d get one piece of foam each for today. Why? Because I wanted them to focus on what they could do with printmaking, not draw a picture, make a print, and then repeat the process. One plate = lots of experimentation. So the first thing you do with these, obviously, is draw into the plate.

DSC00043

V is getting quite involved with his drawing here! We looked around the studio for things to use and found the end of paintbrushes, pencils, the bone folder, a wooden tool that was blunt on one end and sharp on the other (it came in a set of clay tools), even fingernails.

After scratching, ink with the brayer. The ink should be a thin, even coat. Even a toddler can do this once you show her how.

DSC00036

At one point, N got a bit painterly with his ink application.

DSC00044

And G, as per usual, requested to use all the colors in turn (which made for some pretty wild and amazing prints!).

DSC00054

Here, V will show you how simple the process is. Ink your plate, smoothly press your paper over the inked side of your plate using your hands, and then peel the paper away to reveal the print. (As with all photos, click to embiggen.)

steps

Even I got a chance to make some prints.

DSC00073

(My husband served as photographer for this art-making session, which is why I had so many photos from which to choose!)

By the time we were done, we’d made lots and lots of prints.

DSC00076

G didn’t always cover her entire plate, but her color combinations were fantastic.

DSC00078

V also mixed colors to get a series of really nice prints. (I got the starter set of block printing ink, so we had blue, yellow, red, black, white, and gold.)

DSC00080

N was having some trouble with inking, pressing, and fingerprints–and perhaps a busy plate.

DSC00081

I think that one is probably a ghost print (when you make a second print off the plate without re-inking). He was happy with the process, though, and with many of his prints. I like his painterly ones, too.

DSC00082

One of my prints:

DSC00079

That’s one of the ones I made using up some leftover ink on somebody’s palette. (Moms do that.)

The water-soluble block printing inks clean up super easily, although I don’t know if they wash out of clothing. (Amazingly, I won’t find out, either, because none of the kids got any on their clothes.) It rinsed off the brayers, acrylic palette, and plates with just water, and it wiped right off the table and hands (and forehead, in G’s case), too.

About halfway through, V said, “This is the best project! Usually I’m done by now.” There is just something about printmaking–the way you can use the plate over and over yet get different results, the freedom to experiment without worrying you’ll mess something up (you’ll still have the plate), the immediate gratification of peeling off that paper–it’s so exciting and engaging. And, as you can see, it can be as simple as scratching into some foam.

Messy Hands

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Over the weekend, while the kids worked on their projects for the blog party of sorts that Tinkerlab is hosting on Friday, G asked for a sponge to use with her paint. Not long after that, I noticed she was making sponge prints on the art table, so I asked if she’d like a piece of paper.

My main job in the studio is Facilitator. What do the kids need from me to help them fulfill their vision, or explore their idea? G needed some paper.

What fun, making all those sponge prints! And such a difference from the first time I gave her a sponge to use with paint, when she used the sponge similarly to a paintbrush. Now, four months later, she’s clearly using it to make prints.

By the end of her painting/printing session, her hands looked like this.

I love seeing a kid get into her work. Hands are washable!

**

The big Tinkerlab reveal takes place Friday, when I get to show you how all of my kids fulfilled the challenge she set out. And my latest post is up at Kidoinfo, in which G’s hands get messy for the sake of product, not process, but all in the name of Mother’s Day. (She took control anyway; no worries!)

Rolling Pin Prints (II)

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The materials and method are the same as before, but this time, the boys gave it a try. They were really wanting to do this since G and I told them about it.

They each chose to print one color at a time, and I only have one rolling pin (a deficit, clearly, but they were mostly patient). N printed his paper every which way, going for a Jackson Pollock effect. (“Who’s that guy with the splatter paints? That’s what this looks like!”)

V was very deliberate (which is no surprise by this point), changing the direction of his paper with each color so that the lines of the rubber bands criss-crossed.

They decided to wait until the blue, green, and red were fully dry before adding the yellow, which I think was smart–otherwise, I think the yellow would have gotten muddied up.

They’re not sure what they’ll do with these–keep them as is, or use them as patterned paper in another project? I think it could go either way; they stand alone just fine. I might need more rolling pins, though.

**

I came across this activity in a book geared towards toddlers, and yet it was easy to see how and why my older children would enjoy it, too–as did I! If you have older and younger children, do you have any tried and true art activities that are enjoyed by all?

Rolling Pin Prints

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(Inspired by First Art by MaryAnn Kohl.)

Materials: Rolling pin; tempera paint; piece of Plexiglas or old plate (for the paint); paper; rubber bands

I finally got a new wooden rolling pin, which means my temporary one was available for the art room. (I got rid of my old wooden one when I was diagnosed with celiac, and it took me a while to replace it with a proper one. Not sure why it took so long!) This was exciting, because I’ve been wanting to try using it for printmaking with G.

She was excited about putting the rubber bands onto the rolling pin (with my help).

She chose the paint colors, and I squired them onto a piece of Plexiglas (it’s from a box frame).

I was going to use that foam brush to spread the paint out a bit on the Plexiglas, but G was having none of that. I tried to show her how to cover all the sides of the rolling pin with paint, but she “do self.” Then it was time to roll on the paper.

And then she got fed up with it all and asked for the foam paintbrush.

Painting is, after all, what G likes best. To be fair, she was really tired that morning and she took a really long nap that afternoon–and she usually doesn’t nap at all. When she was done painting, I used the extra paint to make some prints with the rolling pin myself.

I thought it looked kind of like seaweed.

A few days later, G asked to paint with the rolling pin again, so we gave it another try. This is the result from a less-tired G.

She didn’t quite get the hang of rolling the pin in one long motion, and instead was going back and forth. But you can still sort of see the marks from the rubber band. I’m sure we’ll revisit this and find other things to put on the rolling pin to get different effects. Meanwhile, I used up the extra paint again, so we have several sheets of printed paper for use in future projects.

So tell me, what have you used a rolling pin for, besides rolling out dough?