Block printing tutorial

I bought this vintage middle eastern block about a year and a half ago and have been dying to use it.

I finally found a worthy project. It involved printing a yard of cotton twill as a part of another project that I promised soon.

To start you need to measure your block and see how that translates to a pattern that works.

I marked off the spacing I wanted for the first row and then offset that by half for the second row. It is a good idea to get this spacing figured out by printing on paper first.

For the "ink" I used red oxide heavy body acrylic paint and a bit of fabric medium. I mixed it and rolled it out on an old palette but it is properly done on a piece of glass. The roller thingy you see is called a brayer. It is a hard rubber roller and I have had it since college. Many times, over the years I have been tempted to pitch the brayer but the memory of its unusual expense at the college art supply and the two stinkin' times I used it had me holding on and I am glad I did.

It is important roll a layer out so that it goes on you block evenly.

It took me some time to get the feel of how much to ink the block. I was using too little at first. Then, about halfway through, the block got a bit gloppy.

gloppy

I simply wash and thoroughly dried it to continue.

My project will require just a bit less than the one yard and the first three rows of printing were not ideal so I can cut them off. It took me an hour to do one yard but I got much faster and more precise by the end of the run so a larger piece would not be too hard.

My bank account is relieved I did not go for the Robshaw fabric and I still got some hand printed fabric.

I can't wait to try this again.