Linoleum Block Printing for Amateurs - The Beacon Handicraft Series

Charlotte D. Bone

Description

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 08 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528764759
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE BEACON HANDICRAFT SERIES
LINOLEUM BLOCK PRINTING for AMATEURS
BY CHARLOTTE D. BONE
Head of the Department of Block Printing, Fellowcrafters Guild
Issued in co-operation with the Fellowcrafters Guild, affiliate of Boston University
FOREWORD
IN the bewildering cross currents that have engulfed modern life in rapid changes, it has become increasingly evident to educators and others engaged in character training that an inevitable effect has been a paternalistic tendency to regiment the habits and even the very thoughts of both children and adults. This has forced growing life into restrictive channels by prescribed patterns, so that the constructive efforts of education have been frustrated and qualities of individual initiative and self-reliance have been alarmingly submerged.
Boston University, together with other institutions of higher learning, has recognized the seriousness of the problem. It has given careful study to the means of meeting the situation and, in 1930, decided that an opportunity should be offered to its students and to teachers and social workers of surrounding towns to learn a selected number of creative handicrafts so that they might have this means of stimulating self-expression in the daily lives of children and adults.
The response was immediate and enthusiastic, so that these courses have been regularly included in the educational and social science curriculum. Instruction in the different crafts is given by the teachers of the Fellowcrafters Guild, an institution of acknowledged leadership in this field, which has now been affiliated with Boston University.
Numerous requests, however, have been received for craft instruction from persons in distant places and others unable to attend the classes. The Beacon Press has generously agreed to join in this social experiment by publishing a series of inexpensive, elementary books, which will give to people remote from Boston exactly the same step-by-step instruction as is afforded to the class students.
Boston University shares with the publishers the hope that The Beacon Handicraft Series will afford its readers a satisfying means of self-expression through creative work.
H ENRY H. M EYER , Ph.D., Th.D.,
Dean of Boston University School of Social Service .
PREFACE
LINOLEUM block printing is an art very easily acquired yet it affords a pleasurable avocation and an alluring opportunity to develop original ideas and designs applicable to various uses. In order, however, to produce successful and distinctive prints, the worker must be acquainted with the proper uses of equipment and material.
The author has presented detailed directions for the methods of making and printing the blocks which a long experience in teaching of the craft has shown to be most satisfactory. The book has been written primarily for beginners, but there are chapters on multicolored printing, textile printing, and lettering, as well as much suggestive matter in the designs which will interest more advanced workers.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to Arthur J. Stone, to Mary Parkman Sayward of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Helen E. Cleaves, Director of Art in the Boston Public Schools, for their criticism of the designs, to Charles E. White, Jr., for his assistance with the illustrations, to Helener G. Robertson for rearranging and revising the manuscript, and to Constantine Belash, President of the Fellowcrafters, for his helpful advice and co-operation in the preparation of this book.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
F OREWORD
P REFACE
CHAPTER
I
H ISTORY OF B LOCK P RINTING
II

T OOLS


Sets for Linoleum Block Printing - Wood Engraving Tools - Use of a Knife for Cutting and Gouging - Sharpening Tools .
III

D ESIGNS FOR L INOLEUM B LOCK P RINTING


Selecting a Design - Effects Obtained by Different Methods of Engraving - Laying out the Design.
IV

P REPARING L INOLEUM B LOCKS


Selecting Linoleum for Blocks - Mounted and Unmounted Blocks - Truing the Surface - Coating the Surface of a Block.
V

T RANSFERRING THE D ESIGN TO THE B LOCK


Tracing - Drawing Design Directly on the Block - Offset Transference - Transferring a Design for Offset Printing.
VI

E NGRAVING THE B LOCK


Use of Tools in Linoleum Block Cutting Sets - Engraving with a Knife - Mending a Block.
VII

P REPARING TO P RINT THE B LOCK


Choice of Paper for Prints - Ink - Ink Slab - Brayer - Dabber - Mixing Ink - Inking the Block.
VIII

M ETHODS OF P RINTING L INOLEUM B LOCKS


Hand or Foot Pressure - Burnisher - Rubber Roller or Rolling-Pin - Clothes Wringer - Printing Presses - Offset Printing.
IX

P RINTING IN C OLORS


Tint Blocks and Color Gradation - One-Block Varicolored Prints - Full-color Prints - Registering the Design on the Block - Methods of Printing.
X

T EXTILE P RINTING


Laying out the Design - Choice of Textiles - Printing Medium - Directions for Printing - Setting the Color.
XI

L ETTERING


Letters Suitable for Block Printing - Laying out the Lettering - Lettering the Block - Cutting Letters on the Block.
XII

G REETING C ARDS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATE
I
Linoleum Block Cutting Set
II
Wood Engraving Tools
III
Knives for Linoleum Engraving
IV
A Design with Mass Areas
V
A Design for Gouged Work
VI
A Design for White-line Engraving
VII
A Design for Black-line Engraving
VIII
A Design Combining All Cutting Methods
IX
Effects Obtained by Different Cutting Processes
X
Truing the Surface of a Block
XI
An Engraved Block and its Impression
XII
The Method of Holding Engraving Tools
XIII
Cutting a Corner; Cross-Section of Gouging
XIV
Outlining with a Knife; Proper and Improper Knife Cuts
XV
Mending a Block
XVI
Ink Slab and Brayer
XVII
Making a Dabber
XVIII
Printing with a Burnisher
XIX
Illustration of Uneven Burnishing
XX
Printing with a Clothes Wringer
XXI
Portable Press
XXII
Letter Press
XXIII
Offset Printing
XXIV
Tint Blocks
XXV
Color Gradations Obtained with a Brayer
XXVI
Frame for Printing One-Block Varicolored Prints
XXVII
Blocks for Making Full-color Prints
XXVIII
Placer
XXIX
Registering Blocks by Offset Method
XXX
Variations of a Repeat Pattern
XXXI
White-line Two-Block Design for Textile Printing
XXXII
Two Blocks in Contrasting Effects for Textile Printing
XXXIII
Sectioning an Area for Printing
XXXIV
Methods of Attaching a Handle to a Block
XXXV
Lettering by White-line and Black-line Methods
XXXVI
Black-line Lettering
XXXVII
Heavy Lettering in Three Styles
XXXVIII
Monograms
XXXIX
Cutting White-line Letters
XL
Designs for Christmas Cards
CHAPTER I
H ISTORY OF B LOCK P RINTING
THE cutting or engraving of designs on blocks of wood or metal, and then applying coloring matter to the outstanding surface so that the design can, under pressure, be repeatedly imprinted on paper, cloth, or other media is so simple and natural a process that it must have very early suggested itself to the inventive mind of man. In fact, the origin of the art undoubtedly extends back before the Christian Era.
Printing from wooden blocks and clay tablets is said to have been discovered in China at least as early as 50 B. C . Native Chinese historians, however, date the beginning of the practical development of the art of making prints from engraved wood blocks in the sixth century A. D . The earliest known prints on paper were made during the T ang dynasty (618-905). They were cheap reproductions in great quantities of religious paintings. The earliest printed book which has been discovered was printed from blocks and bears the statement Printed on May 11, 868, by Wang Chieh for free general distribution, in order in deep reverence to perpetuate the memory of his parents. A little later, printing from movable type was invented in China and used from 1040 to 1049 but, on account of the great number of characters needed in the Chinese language, the method was impractical and was not generally adopted.
The Japanese learned the art of block printing from China in the eighth century, the earliest known date being 770. At first they confined their efforts to reproducing popular religious figures, as had been the custom in China. Soon, however, a school of artists arose in Japan who made designs especially for woodcutting and planned them with due consideration for the possibilities and limitations in cutting the wooden surface, whereas in China the art was the mere reproduction of any more or less suitable designs. Even the use of various colors was known to the Chinese, and presumably also to the Japanese, as early as the seventeenth century, possibly earlier, for there is in the British Museum a set of prints in eight colors which was brought from China in 1693. To the Japanese, however, belongs the credit for the real development of the art so that beautiful prints were produced through the cooperation of the designers in planning suitable designs and the deftness of the woodcutters in engraving the