It’s time to Snart it up with Printmaking! I’m so excited to print and stamp my way through May! Keep reading for inspirational artists and books, plus lots of activities and project ideas to keep you busy all month long.
Also, apologies for saying “little owl workshop” so many times! It’s Yellow Owl!! My brain short-circuited, but all the links are correct below.
Artists
Landry McMeans - Uses the stencil technique to create her screen prints.
Renee Fly - Her linocut patterns are modern and can be used on different types of materials: paper, tea towels and fabric
Kathleen Neely - Her relief printing has such beautiful linework and texture.
Callie Barbas - Another relief printer, using linoleum, who makes moon phase calendars and more
Favianna Rodriguez - Interdisiplinary artist, she combines multiple techniques, including collage and printmaking
Books
The Printmaking Bible by Ann D’Arcy Hughes
Silkscreen is Easy by Little Friends of Printmaking
Printmaking by Dana Meachen Rau
Yellow Owl’s Little Prints: Stamp, Stencil, and Print Projects to Make for Kids by Christine Schmidt
Cats in Ukiyo-E: Japanese Woodblock Print of Utagawa Kinoyoshi by Nobuhisa Kaneko
Anything Ukiyo-e. Hokusai is my favorite.
Activities
Visit a Museum or checkout online exhibitions:
National Museum of Asian Art: https://asia.si.edu/whats-on/exhibitions/the-print-generation/
Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers: https://www.re-printmakers.com/exhibitions/40/works/
Print together with friends! Great way to used materials and contain the mess.
Go on a nature walk to gather objects to print with
Projects
Carve pink rubber eraser stamps. Similar to linocuts!
Print with food - apples, or anything you can bisect. Make sure they’re not too juicy
Potato printing - Use fabric ink or fabric block ink if you want to print on fabric. Great for tea towels, aprons, tote bags and thicker fabric, but totally fine for shirts as well.
Foam shapes - use premade foam shapes (or use foam strips to make your own shapes) and glue them to a hard surface, like cardboard or scrap wood and use as a stamp.
Use everyday objects in your house: sponges cut to shape, brushes, plastic cutlery, bubble wrap, etc. If you don’t mind getting it messy, give it a try.
Lego Printing! Use a baseplate and small, flat Lego bricks to make a design. Ink them with a roller and use a brayer to transfer the ink. This requires a few more supplies, but you can use them over and over. https://ogdencontemporaryarts.org/oca-artist-factory-the-diy-edition/
Use wine corks and cut simple, small designs to use as stamps. I got a bunch from Scrap Creative Reuse in Ann Arbor!
Pencil erasers can be used for detail, or rubber-banded together to make little flowers.
Wrap a woodblock in string. That’s it!
See what you can recycle! Tape tubes and toilet rolls make great circular patterns and you can cut them up and fold them in creative ways for even more shapes/
Links
Newsletter: https://beckyhelms.substack.com/s/newsletter
Previous Snart Episodes:
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/10-becky-snart-snackart-afterschool
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/12-snart-theme-for-february-with
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/16-snart-theme-for-march-with-becky
https://beckyhelms.substack.com/p/20-snart-theme-for-april-with-becky
Find me all over the place!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeckyhelms/
Substack: https://substack.com/@beckyhelms
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeckyHelms
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