What is relief printing?
Remember when we made potato stamps in kindergarten and brought the artwork home for our parents? That's relief printing at its root (forgive the pun).
Magic happens when you cut away shapes, lines, indentations from a printing surface / block (could be an eraser, lino, wood, or a potato!), ink up the block, and then press it onto paper. The print will only reveal the parts of the block which have been inked up (areas which have been cut out do not have ink on them). The resulting print will be a mirror image of the printing block.
That each piece is handmade means that each print is unique, and no two pieces will be the same, as there will always be variations in colour, texture, etc.
The relief printing process
This is very much an analogue process, and involves a multi-stage process. Here's what goes into each print:
1. Design and draw print
2. Trace final illustration onto block, and finesse (I work with a mix of traditional lino, wood, and Japanese vinyl).
3. Carve the design!
4. Mix inks to find right colour.
5. Test print (sometimes back to the drawing or carving block!)
6. Once I'm happy with the design and carved block, I handprint every single print using a wooden spoon to bring up the details.
7. Wrap in recycled packaging and post!
* As a general rule of thumb, more detailed prints, as well as multiple colours and blocks require more effort and have a higher error rate (sigh).
** For prints that are marked as limited edition, this means that the block no longer exists / has been destroyed, and no further reprints will be made.