I’ve been weighing the pros and cons of both etsy and bigcartel lately; and really think I’m going to go for bigcartel.
do you guys have had any interesting experiences to share?

anyway, since I’m about to become fanny z (pronounce fanny zed) on bigcartel, I’ve been checking quite a lot of bigcartel hosted shops; and eventually fell in love with this one.

as mentionned earlier, the late afternoon was spent lino printing. my first time ever. and so far I’ve loved every single second.

I only made some test prints, but will totally make the final one tomorrow, or more accurately, as soon as I’ll have decided on which colour to use. greyish beige?
anyway, I took some pictures of the process; hopefully, you’ll find them useful. consider this as a visual tutorial to lino printing.

ps. the design is copyright fanny zanotti © 2008. do not use without express permission.

you’ll need:
- pencil and permanent marker
- x acto knife
- tracing paper
- lino
- gouges, or lino carving tools
- brayer
- acrylic paint

a. draw what you want to print - either on paper or using Illustrator. make sure it is a simple design, in plain black and white.
black is for what will appear on paper.
white stands for the ‘holes’.

b. transfer your sketch to the lino block using tracing paper.

c. carve out the white spaces, do this very slowly, securing the gouges with both of your hands for maximum safety (for your fingers, but also for the lino). don’t try to go too deep, you’ll be able to do that later if necessary.
just start by outlining the main lines with a fine tool, then carve in the big spaces. I found my 1mm gouges to be the most useful, although the wide and flat 8mm one came in handy to carve the surrounding spaces.
for a 20 x 20cm design, this step took around two hours; but then, I’m a complete beginner.

d. cut out the stamp using an x acto kinfe. do a small incision, then break into two part and slice the fabric base of the lino.

e. ink your stamp. squeeze some acrylic paint onto a glass plate. then using your brayer, roll out the paint into an even layer; more than you would think you need.

f. test your stamp by inverting it onto a sheet of paper and applying pressure (use a barren, or failing that a rolling pin). gently lift the lino block and allow the paper to dry.
as you can see from the couple last pictures, they seem to be some white patches inside the black spaces. this is just due to the very paper being torn apart, and won’t show in the final fine print.

happy with your design? then repeat these two last steps with high-quality paper.

things couldn’t be better. I’m back from three days spent in the loveliest place ever in company of my favourite people on earth. I took tons of great polaroid pictures. I have a new laptop. I just received a package from gerstaecker; pretty much everything I need to make my own prints.

I’ve always dreamt about printing my own designs. but as much as I’d love to, a letter press is just two expensive for me right now, and goccos are impossible to find around here.
then, I came across linoprinting. and felt happy.

I’ve drawn a couple of series I intend to print; one of those being about polaroid cameras. love them so much I don’t want to forget about them. never.
I plan to carve the lino tonight and hopefully, I’ll have some beautiful results to show you tomorrow.

this is so inspiring; and pretty, too.

love this lamp discovered at swissmiss. I so really need one.

and what about those super lovely mason jar lights spotted at d*s.

I’m working on a series of coloured moutains. all being different from one another. here is the brown one.

materials
:: daler rowney archival paper 220g/m²
:: daler rowney water soluble colour pencils
:: pin

size
:: 8 x 10 in

Tamar’s handmade items are so delicate and beautiful.