Rowan Sivyer - Modern Block Printing: Over 15 Projects Designed to Be Printed by Hand

When it comes to carving materials, we have many choices from wood and vinyl, to linoleum (lino from now on) and soft-carve rubber. For this book and the projects within, I would recommend using soft-carve rubber if soft-carve is not available, or your budget does not allow for it, then use lino. Carving wood can be tricky to master for most beginners (and for seasoned carvers as well).

Some rubbers are better than others; my rubber of choice is Renoir Ezy-Carve because of its thickness but I also really enjoy carving Speedball Speedy-Carve. Experiment with what is available and see which one works best for you.

I often get asked by my students about my preference for PVC rubber over lino, and I give them several reasons:

1. Rubber is easier and safer to carve. Lino becomes increasingly hard and brittle the longer it sits on the shelf. You need to warm it as you go, and I often find I cannot control how much lino I am cutting. If your carving tools are not sharp enough, then you will find yourself pushing harder and sometimes your tool will skid across the lino... into your hand. Rubber/PVC rubber is softer to carve. I can carve for longer without strain to my wrist, and I dont have to put as much pressure on my tools so there is far less chance of an accident.
2. Rubber is easier to print with. PVC rubber is easy to pick up and print with without having to mount it. The thinness of lino means that you often need to mount it in order to block print with it, which just adds an extra step between carving the stamp and printing the stamp. PVC is also easier to cut down to size (no hessian backing getting in the way) and it doesnt curl when it gets wet.
3. Rubber is more versatile when it comes to inking up. I have used archival oil-based inkpads, relief printing ink, acrylic paint and screen printing inks on PVC rubber. Also, PVC rubber is not as thirsty as lino. To get a good, solid print from lino, you need to prime the block by taking multiple prints, whereas I can get a good print the first time I use a rubber block.

This is not to say that easy-carve rubber does not have its drawbacks. It is a little more expensive than lino. It is also true that lino, which is made of linseed oil, cork dust, wood flour and pine resin, is more environmentally sustainable than PVC rubber, which is essentially a plastic. I personally counter this by using as much of my offcut rubber as possible. The larger offcuts can be turned into more stamps, while the tiny scraps and shavings can be used as filling for things like stress balls, juggling balls, door stops or even soft toys. Its also worth noting that soft-cut rubbers come in set sizes, so if you want to create a print over 30 cm (12 in) high or wide, you may have to either use multiple pieces or turn to lino, which can come in rolls and be cut to size.

Carving tools (gouges, blades, cutters) can vary in terms of blade shape and quality, and come in different sizes and with different handle lengths. I mainly use the shorter palm tools, because I find they are easier to use than the longer-handled tools). In general, carving blades come as a V, a U or a knife. V-shaped and U-shaped blades can vary in width and depth.

HOW TO HOLD EQUIPMENT

When you are starting off, a basic set of either wooden-handled or plastic-handled tools is perfectly adequate. Your first set of tools may include three to five separate tools, or it might consist of one tool with interchangeable blades, such as the Speedball cutter. While the latter can be cost-effective, having to change blade heads can be fiddly and tiresome if you are carving often.

When it comes to carving tools, you really do get what you pay for, which is why I highly recommend spending a little more money on some quality palm tools. Pfeil and Flexcut tools are favourites. The handles are ergonomic, sitting very comfortably in the hand, and the steel is of a high quality and super sharp they cut through rubber like a hot knife through butter. Flexcuts palm tools only come in sets (I particularly like their micro tool set), whereas Pfeil tools can be bought in a set or individually. While it is fun to have a variety of different sizes and shapes, most of my carving is done with three tools:

1. a 0.5 mm or 1 mm wide U-shaped or V-shaped carving tool for fine lines
2. a wide and shallow U-shaped tool for clearing larger sections of filler or background
3. a tool with a mid-range sized gouge to vary the cuts

I use cheap tracing paper to trace and transfer my designs to rubber. You can use baking or parchment paper if tracing paper is not available.

A craft knife is very useful for cutting rubber blocks down to a manageable size and for trimming away excess rubber. An X-acto blade or a scalpel can also be used to cut into your stamp and carve pieces away.

If I am using smaller rubber blocks, or printing cards or testing colour ideas, I generally reach for an inkpad. Inkpads come in many different shapes and sizes. Larger inkpads cost more but last a long time, while smaller cubes or tear-shaped inkpads can be used to blend colours on a block itself. I prefer to work with archival oil-based pigment inks over water-based dye inkpads. I find that pigment inkpads sit on the PVC rubber blocks well whereas dye inks tend to puddle, leading to patchy prints. Some of my favourite brands of ink include Versafine, Versafine Clair, Delicata, Versacolor and Versamagic.

Relief inks can be water-based, oil-based or oil-based water-washable. The latter is my preferred type, because not only is the ink satisfyingly opaque and smooth, but it can also be washed off without the need for solvents. Ink comes in either tubes or tins, and a little goes a long way. You can also buy additives to mix with your relief inks: for example, you can buy extender, which helps to make the ink more transparent, or tack reducer to you guessed it reduce tack (stickiness). Relief ink stays open for a long time, which means that if your printing is interrupted, you can return to it later and the ink will still be wet. However, this also means that prints take longer to dry. Just how long it takes can depend on the weather. Here in Sydney, where it is warm but often humid, it generally takes about three days for a print to dry. As with acrylic paints, block printing inks can be mixed to make the perfect colour for a project. I highly recommend spending a little time experimenting with mixing your inks and making test cards for future reference.

Tool maintenance

If you have paid for good tools, you really should look after them! Make sure you store them safely. I use a leather tool pouch. Other people put corks on the end of their tools to protect the blades or find a rack-type solution.

As with kitchen knives, carving tools should be sharpened regularly; a sharp tool is a safe tool. You can sharpen your tools on a strop or a whetstone. A strop is a piece of leather that you rub with a honing or polishing compound before dragging your tool across the leather towards you repeatedly. A V-shaped tool is relatively straightforward to sharpen as long as you make the same number of strokes on each side. A U-shaped tool is harder to hone, so work in small sections around the curve. Once proficient, you can curl your tool while pulling it towards you, thus allowing the whole arc of the U to sharpen. Take note: the blade of a tool can be damaged through incorrect or over-vigorous honing, so take it slow and steady. A whetstone is a stone that has micro-abrasive particles that, when wet, works in a similar way to the strop.