Date : June 26, 2018
Ink printing can create gorgeous pieces of work! But often people struggle to achieve that at home without expensive equipment. Luckily, our friend Bel from Mums Take Five has put together this guide on her home ink printing technique.
You will need:
- Wool
- Paint brushes
- A thick book
- Paper
- Aluminium foil
- Bowls
- Paper Towel
- Ink or we used water and liquid food colour.
Set Up
A big story book is needed here, we used quite a big book with pages bigger than our paper. In the middle of the book I laid a piece of aluminium foil and wrapped it over the edges. Just incase we spilt ink it wouldn’t ruin our book.
Next I made our ink bowls. We used 2 tablespoons of water to two teaspoons of liquid food colouring. So we made two bowls one green for leaves and one yellow for flower blossoms.
I also put brushes to help coat and take out the wool and a piece of paper towel to catch drips.
We used two bowls of colour ink so we needed two lengths of wool. I didn’t measure these at all but they were about 20cm each. I don’t think it really matters you need enough length to put into the book and enough of a tail end to pull it out with.
Method
- Now to make the prints. Lay two pieces of paper into your book one on each side.
- Coat your wool in the ink remember to keep an end out so you can hold onto it. We used the paintbrush to help coat and to help lift it out and onto the paper towel. Don’t blot with the paper towel you’ll remove too much of the ink just dip onto it to catch anything that will make puddles.
- Lay it onto the right hand side page. Lay it down in circles or lines however it falls. Remember to leave that end piece hanging out so you can hold it.
- Close the book. Don’t push down just close it. Now pull the piece wool out of the book.
- Reopen the book and you will have your print.
- Once they have dried you can leave them of use them to create pictures with. We created lots of flower blossoms, leaves and even a gumnut baby in our prints.
We’d love to see what you can create with this fun printing technique, Can you make flower blossoms or a gumnut baby too?
This is a contribution from Crafty Bel! Crafty Bel is here to help stimulate little imaginations and spark a creative flame in little people. Inspired by May Gibbs’ own passion for creative writing and art, Bel helps educators and mums to embrace nature inspired creativity. You can find more of Bel’s work at Mums Take Five.
