Wood Block Printing with Simon Clements – Autumn 2022

Using traditional carving tools and a wooden spoon learn to carve and print from your own wooden print block

A short woodblock printing course introducing students to carving wooden printing blocks. Although this is a very ancient way of producing prints it has largely fallen out of favour with the availability of new materials such as lino which are easier to cut and are much more stable. This course aims to teach students how to carve low relief images for printing, in various types of wood and how to creatively exploit the surface texture, grain and imperfections of the wood to develope those printed images.

1. Designing and cutting the first test block:

Prepare your wooden printing block, then draw up  your test design on paper before being shown how to transfer it to a prepared wood surface. Using a traditional lino/ block printing v tool you will be shown how to carve out your design to create black printed lines. Using the same v tool you will be shown how to create mid tone ‘colour’ using cross hatching techniques. Then using a shallow gouge you will be shown how to remove waste material to produce white areas on the finished print.

Outcomes:

• Preparing your timber
• learn to draw your design for printing.
• learn how to transfer your drawing from paper to timber
• learn how to use woodblock printing chisels and gouges
• learn about negative and positive printing, black and white.
• Experiment with grey and mid tone colour using cross hatching with a v tool.

2. Printing your block:

students will then be introduced to the ‘wooden spoon Barren’ and be shown how to prepare it for use on the printing paper. Using a hard rubber print roller and water based printing ink students will be shown how to roller ink onto a block. Students are then shown how a printing frame holds the block and how to lay printing paper over the block (registering). Students will print the image by using the spoon Barren to rub over the paper with an even firm pressure

Prints will then be lifted from the block.

Outcomes:

• Preparing a wooden spoon Barren for use.
• Preparing printing ink for the roller.
• Fixing the block in place in the printing frame.
• Fixing and registering the printing paper.
• Using the barren to make a print.

Program of work:

Day one: Drawing for prints: A drawing exercise to explain how prints work the drawing will be the subject of the first carving
Day two: Cutting your image into the wood: using the bench hook to hold the carving, using v tools and gouges
Day three: Registering paper and fixing printing block, inking and printing Artists proof and finished print
Day four: drawing your own print block experimenting with wood texture and grain developing your own print and working on own ideas

Class Dates:

Oct ( Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)

Class Times: All classes start at 9:30 and end at 16:30

Price: £250 (Deposit: £100)

Please note:  no refunds will be given if canceled 2 weeks or less before the class are scheduled to start.