lino love (and tutorial)

Here comes the overdue lino post! I’ve been experimenting with lino cutting and printing or stamping on fabric for the last two or three weeks, and though there have been disappointments, cut fingers and printing frustrations I am loving it and think I am slowly getting the hang of it!
This little zipper pouch is handsewn with printed fabric and interfaced with cotton batting:

So here’s how I do it: I draw an image on paper and photograph it. With photoshop I mirror the image and then print it in the size I want it to be on paper (so you can print it any size you want it to be). I use graphite paper for transfering the image onto linoleum.
When carving I start with the most difficult parts first.

Here’s the cutting nearly finished:

For printing on fabric I use fabric paint, which I apply with a little sponge (the ones you use for make-up). This works like an inkpad. There are fabric inkpads out there, just not where I live, so this is a great substitute!

For smaller images you can also mount the lino on a piece of wood for easier printing.

Then you can go ahead and print on fabric. Be sure to choose fabric paint that can be made waterproof by ironing it after it has dried! Then you can wash the stamped fabric afterwards without ruining the stamped images.

Or print it on paper (for this I use special lino paint which I apply with a brayer)

Now you can go ahead and sew something with the fabric, like the pouch above or this little key charm

or make collages with your printed paper (for this one I printed on vintage tissue paper with fabric paint and sewed it on scrapbookpaper, adding a bit of white tulle)

Thanks for reading this long, long post to the very end!!

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