Linoleum Prints with Elderberry Dyed Paper
This week I have been working on some fun prints to add to my show. I wanted to try to print a linoleum block since I haven’t done one in a long time and I really like the look of those kinds of prints. I made a couple sketches of different imagery I planned on using in my show. I finally decided on a luna moth because I need to print on this dried gourd my mom got for me and I think the repetitive moth design would look nice on there.
Before printing on the gourd, I figured I would do some test prints. I drew out my moth design on my piece of linoleum and then carved it. After carving, it was time to ink the block and start printing. I used a black lithography ink to ink up my block with the brayer. I tried to use a sort of stamping technique on the white paper so I would know how well it would show up on the gourd. This didn’t work very well. I tried a different technique where I would roll up the block and then put the paper on top and burnish it down. This also showed up very light and wasn’t a very successful print. After those two tries and nothing working, I moved over to the press. I pretty much figured I’m going to have to try something different for printing on my gourd, and I might as well make some fun prints for now.
I decided to try dyeing some of my white BFK paper to add a nice texture and tone to the paper before printing on it. My dad harvested some elderberries for me that I have had sitting in a jar for a while, so I figured I would try to use those as a dye. And a tip for doing this is to maybe not leave your berries in a sealed jar for over a month as mine started to ferment and turn to alcohol. Or maybe you should…Anyway, I sifted the berries through a strainer so the juice was pure and wouldn’t leave a bunch of little seeds on my prints. The juice from them is a beautiful magenta color, but when it dries it’s a deep purple. I started tearing down my paper and painted some splatter textures on, and experimented with taping off some borders to see how that would look.
After all of my paper was dry, I moved it over to the press, and after getting the pressure just right I finally started printing. The prints were coming out alright, but not as clean as I had originally wanted. I still enjoyed the outcome and I thought they looked really nice. I left the print studio after taking some images and went home for the weekend, pretty satisfied with my work.
When I came back to the studio Monday I was shocked at what I saw. The elderberry juice had oxidized and my purple prints were now green. Funny enough, they turned out to be my favorite color of green, but nonetheless did not turn out how I wanted them to. Overall, I think I’m still pretty satisfied with them and I’m not upset about it and will probably still be using these in my show.
