Lino printing fabric workshop

Wow. What a workshop! I’ve been looking at ways of how to expand and evolve A Crafty Den, and making my own fabric felt like the most logical and exciting route to go down. However, was it just me, or did anyone else not have the chance to do Lino printing at school!? It seems like it passed me by!

I spent a lot of time researching different Lino printing workshops, knowing that I wanted to spend a good amount of time really understanding and trying the process. After a long search, I came across Victoria Works Studios in Chalford, near Stroud. Perfect. What I didn’t expect was how much I would love both the workshop and the location...

Victoria Works Studio was built in the 1850s and is set by a canal; it used to be an upholsterers until bought in 2013. The building itself is full of character, and home to all sorts of creatives including ceramicists, silversmiths, instrument makers and upholsterers - a real find. They have loads of workshops and courses on, which you can find here.

Starting out for the day

The Lino Printing workshop was on Sunday from 10-4pm, and cost £60 which was really reasonable. The course was so well structured, as it took you step by step through the process, and gave you opportunity to perfect each stage rather than rushing through.

Design
Step one was to create a design. Lizzie, our teacher, had a wide range of both the Lino print blocks and the prints themselves available for us to look at, as well as books filled with design inspiration. Once we had settled on a design, we traced it onto tracing paper.

Transfer
The design is then transferred onto the Lino material; there were two types of material available - traditional Lino and more of a soft cut. Both produce great results but are different to work with!

Carving
Then it’s time to carve out the design. A good tip is to mark on the areas bat you need to carve and what will be inked! We carved out a reasonable amount of the Lino area around the design as well, and the trimmed with scissors.

Practise prints
Now it’s time for inking! Putting the paint onto the Lino print with a sponge and then doing test prints on paper at first. From there, you can clean off the paint and remove more of the Lino if needed ie if you have some marks where the paint is catching on raised parts that you don’t want to see.

Print
Once you’re happy....it’s time to print for real! Quite terrifying and definitely one to plan before you start. Deciding on the pattern and position of the stamping is crucially done ahead of time! Some of the most effective prints were where part of the Lino block was painted in two different colours such as a flower head and the stalks.

Here are some of my examples...definitely first time attempts but cannot wait to try some more!