Hey there! The name's Tyler. I'm a 30+ year old artist and art teacher!! She/her pronouns please! Anytime you need anything, or you want to ask anything for any reason, please go right ahead! I will do my best to answer you.
Hi! I put together an introduction post to block printing on fabric, based on my experience so far. Some basic info on printmaking blocks, ink types and the like. Enjoy!
First off - I have a background in fashion, but fabric block printing is purely a leisure activity for me. This info is intended mostly for other hobbyists and people who want to try their hand at this and don't know where to start. HERE are some examples of works I've done so far. I'll be really glad if this post will help or inspire someone to try<3
(please note that all the materials are what I could get here in Poland - this would obviously differ from country to country)
INK TYPES
SPEEDBALL Fabric Block Printing Ink
Probably the most popular fabric printing ink. Oil-based, water-washable. It has nice viscosity and spreads evenly. Available in many colors, a really nice opaque white among them. Works best with a soft rubber brayer from the same producer (although could be used with a more common, hard rubber brayer as well). Doesn't need heat setting, just a few days to dry properly. It mantains a soft hand after, although it is slightly noticeable. Can be used on both natural and synthetic fibers. Durable: with a test t-shirt I didn't notice much changes after a few washes.
ESSDEE Fabric Block Printing Ink
Water-based, water- washable ink. As in all water-based inks, the viscosity is average - works ONLY with a dedicated brayer from the same producer. Basic colors available, they mix well. Semi-opaque. Needs to be heat-set - the print mantains a really soft hand after, impercteptible by touch alone. Can be used on natural fibers only. Durability is fine, although the first two machine washes of the test t-shirt shown a slight washout on the design (this might also mean I'm shit at heat setting though lol). Good price to quality ratio; much more efficient compared to the Speedball ink.
PRINTMAKING BLOCKS TYPES
SPEEDBALL SPEEDY-CARVE and SPEEDY-CUT EASY BLOCKS
Both are soft blocks and carve really well. Neither needs a press to print on fabric - a pressure by hand or a clean brayer will suffice. Speedy Carve is suitable for all kinds of block-printing ink, Speedy-Cut Easy for water soluble-inks only (oil-based ones might break the surface and wear it out much faster). Personally I prefer Speedy Carve, as the other one is a bit crumbly, which hinders the carving process.
ESSDEE MASTERCUT and SOFTCUT BLOCKS
Both are great! MasterCut blocks are softer and suitable for water-based inks only, while SoftCut can be used for all kind of block-printing inks. First one is 4mm, the other 3mm thick, so you need to get used to carve a thinner surface. As with the Speedball ones, you just need to push the design into the fabric to print it by hand or better - roll a clean brayer over the back of it.
MILAN VINYL CARVING BLOCKS
Very good for fabric printing - smooth, soft, carve easily, print very well. Suitable for all kinds of inks, although they often leave an annoying residue on the surface that needs more cleaning that the other ones. Again - print by pressing with your hand or with a brayer.
BUDGET OPTION - PVC STRIP CURTAIN!
This is a great option for the beginners and people who are fine with carving a transparent plate. Price to quality ratio is AMAZING. I managed to buy two single strips of different thickness (3mm and 4mm if I recall) and both carve and print very well. However, I personally have trouble with carving transparent plates and I find the smell of these pvc curtains absolutely repulsive (might be just my luck tho).
OTHER CARVING/ PRINTMAKING BLOCKS
Stuff you can get from certain sites and find in different hobby sets. Usually have no info on them regarding what they're made of or what inks to use them with. It's always a hit or miss. Although I have to say that the synthetic carving blocks I got a few years ago in Stamp-making set at Flying Tiger Copehagen and similar one at Action recently were both pretty decent. They are often stinky cheap too, so worth trying!
CLASSIC LINO / HARD PVC BLOCKS
Not recommended. You can possibly get good results with classic, grey linoleum if you're presistent enough, but it doesn't have a give that the previous ones have, that is necessary to make a fine print on fabric. You'd also possibly need a press for it, to add more pressure. It's much easier with softer blocks. The hard blocks are out of the question.
RUBBER BLOCKS
Not recommended! They crumble and carve unevenly.
DIFFERENT MATERIALS
One of the best carving materials I own is some yellow lino flooring scraps sent by my dear friend! I used some of it to made these prints. Search locally for possible solutions, you never know what you'll find.
CARVING TOOLS
HANDLE WITH INTERCHANGEABLE CUTTERS - CAUTION!!!
If you're a beginner and want to buy your first carving tools, DO NOT buy these (the two sets on the picture are ones that I have myself and base this info upon). They are cheap and look handy, but! The cutters are not pre-sharpened and you will try in vain to carve anything with these straight out of the box. Sharpening the u- and v-shaped blades is a thing you might want to learn only when you commit to block printing, trust me. It's good to buy 2-3 tools that are more expensive, but ready to use.
There are many good, different brands worldwide, I encourage also to search locally!
PFEIL is a brand I can personally attest to. EXCELLENT quality.
EWA MARCINKOWSKA - for my homies from Poland! I use their tools for 20 years now, good stuff.
PROCESS
To be frank, I assume most of the people who want to try block printing on fabric, might've already tried block printing (on paper) in the past. I won't give you a step by step here. If you're a newbie though, the process of making a linocut is pretty straightforward and easy to research. Here are two videos for starters with some helpful info on the topic:
That's the gist of it. I hope at least some of this info will help you to get into fabric printing <3 Let me know if you have any questions.
ALSO - if any of you know different ink brands, materials and helpful tips for fabric printing you're willing to share, please comment on this post or reblog with sources! Thanks!!
RFK Jr. is stating he will make a list of everyone diagnosed with autism to research the cause. This is bad for obvious reasons.
But there are only 1 to 3 LEGAL ways to get medical records, especially ones of a mental health kind.
1.DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING FROM YOUR DOCTOR ALLOWING THE RELEASE OF MEDICAL RECORDS TO 3RD PARTIES FOR RESEARCH.
This will be in the form of a HIPAA release that you yourself must sign to give consent.
2. DO NOT SIGN A BLANKET RELEASE OF INFORMATION FROM YOUR INSURANCE.
This won't have any specified information to release to them or for them to release to someone else. If you have to have records for the insurance company, make sure they have the specific dates, locations, and if applicable, body part they are needing records for.
3. UNLESS A LOCAL JUDGE FOR YOUR STATE SIGNS A SUBPOENA OR COURT ORDER, YOU MUST SIGN A RELEASE FORM.
The only way around your consent is if RFK Jr. goes through the legal system and that is a HASSEL.
HIPAA is very strict and keeps us safe from malpractice and legal nonsense like this. I know the majority of people on here are not the targets of the 'autism must be cured' crusades, the people who have the highest support needs are the ones he's mainly after, but if you have family or friends that are severely disabled, this is how you help keep them safe.
Pass this around and stay informed. The Man Who Swallows Demons as He Speaks is not to be trusted.
When I was 3 years old I went to a preschool that had this little green crocheted crocodile finger puppet that was my absolute favorite toy to play with of all time. I named her Chelsea, because Chelsea starts with C and crocodile starts with C and more often than not wild animals in fiction aimed at kids have names that start with the same first letter as their species. I played with Chelsea every day, because she was my favorite toy, and because the other kids weren't really interested in her, and also because I eventually started to hide her in a special secret spot in the room so no one else would find her before I did. She was so beloved by me that when I graduated from preschool, my teachers gave Chelsea to me permanently, because it was clear no one else would ever love that little crochet crocodile as much as me anyway (in part because I hid her). They waited a few weeks after I graduated before doing it, too, and sent Chelsea with some post cards as if the crocodile had been on a whirlwind "travel the world" vacation before deciding to come live with me.
And Chelsea remained my favorite toy all through my childhood. There were others I loved nearly as much, like my Imperial Godzilla and the big red T.rex from the first Jurassic Park toy line and my tiny knockoff plush Charmander, but Chelsea always held the place of honor in my heart. She was my absolute favorite toy.
I kept a lot of my favorite toys through adolescence, even if social pressure eventually got me to give away a lot of them (and some, y'know, broke). That's obviously not surprising to you if you've followed my blog, since I still collect toys into my adulthood. But it's important to note because while I know I made a conscious effort to never throw out Chelsea every time I pared down my collection... at some point, she went missing.
I became aware of it when I graduated from high school. I was feeling really emotional about leaving that stage of my life and, y'know, becoming an adult and shit, and in that state I decided to find Chelsea to reassure myself that I hadn't entirely left childhood behind. But Chelsea wasn't there. No matter how hard I looked, I could not find Chelsea anyway.
And that was, like, devastating, because the only explanation was that somehow, at some point, I had accidentally tossed her out with some other "childhood junk" while trying to grow up and be responsible in my teen years. I had literally thrown away my childhood in a careless attempt to be more grown up.
Of course I knew she was just a toy - nothing more than some yarn twisted together in the loose shape of a crocodile, lifeless and soul-less and more or less worthless in the objective light of day. But she was also Chelsea, my best friend since i was three, my stalwart little pal, a source of comfort for most of my life at that point, and I had just... tossed her out! Like garbage! What kind of person was I becoming if I could do that to my best friend?
I was very visibly distraught, and my mom noticed. Being very crafty, she tried to find the pattern for Chelsea so she could crochet me a new one. The problem is, she had no idea where to find said pattern. She checked all her books of crochet patterns, and when that failed she tried the internet, but no matter how hard she looked, she found nothing.
So my mom found the next best thing.
The original Chelsea was a tiny finger puppet, and I had "met" her when I was three. Well, I was eighteen now - shouldn't Chelsea have grown too? And as has been established, this crocodile was fond of whirlwind vacations. My mom found a pattern that looked as much like Chelsea as possible while also being a much bigger crocodile, and gifted her to me before I left for college - to show that while we can't stop the flow of time or how it changes us, that doesn't mean we have to leave it behind.
And yeah, I decided to believe it. That's Chelsea now. Yeah, I know that in reality it's a completely different set of yarn made by my mom rather than... whoever it was that crocheted the original Chelsea, but then, Chelsea was never really the yarn. She was the feelings I put into the yarn, you know? So that's Chelsea, all grown up, and still my most prized toy.
...
Flash forward... Jesus, eighteen years, holy shit. A few weeks ago I saw a post trying to identify a different crochet crocodile pattern, and thinking it was cute, I decided to try and look for it on ebay and etsy, just to see if maybe I could find it. I didn't, but do you know what I found instead?
A very familiar crochet crocodile finger puppet. An intensely familiar one, you might say. Of course I bought it. And of course I asked the seller if, perhaps, they might have the pattern for it or know where it came from (they did not, alas). And after a few days, she showed up at my house.
She's not Chelsea, obviously. For one thing, she's far too clean and fresh looking - Chelsea was very well loved, and looked the part, while this crocodile finger puppet has definitely not endured years upon years of a child's affection. And, more importantly, she's not Chelsea because we've already established that Chelsea grew up into a bigger crochet crocodile. This has to be Chelsea's younger sister, Cici.
And if I could find another of Chelsea's kind after all these years, then maybe, with a bit of luck, I might find the pattern for her, and be able to make more of them. Fill the world with Chelseas.
The affected voters — those whose paperwork was mishandled and whose voter files lacked their SSN and driver's license — have until FIRDAY, APRIL 18th to contact their local board of elections and attempt to cure their ballot. If you voted in North Carolina last November, you can check whether your vote has been challenged at "The Griffin List" website: link.
I lose my audience for my own donation posts constantly by holding up other peoples. I am begging you all to consider this and to help me through this. I need 300$ to get medicine. These are meds I need to live. I will deteriorate mentally and physically if I do not have this medication. Please help a disabled trans woman not become a shell of herself.
I know we're all broke and struggling on here, especially around holiday seasons and given other world situations. That said, if anyone has even a few bucks to spare, I would really appreciate it- my darling cat Smokey was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago (July 2024) and needs to get a mammary tumor removed in order to improve her quality of life and hopefully extend the time she has. Various vets I've spoken with have said this surgery could easily give her several more months to, if we're lucky, potentially another year or two.
Tumblr doesn't like outside links so I'm going to add the link to our fundraiser in a reblog and in the comments. Even if you yourself can't donate, please consider spreading and signal boosting so we can reach a larger audience!
Smokey says thank you for helping her, whether through donations or reblogs, everything helps. 🐈⬛💕
I know we're all broke and struggling on here, especially around holiday seasons and given other world situations. That said, if anyone has even a few bucks to spare, I would really appreciate it- my darling cat Smokey was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago (July 2024) and needs to get a mammary tumor removed in order to improve her quality of life and hopefully extend the time she has. Various vets I've spoken with have said this surgery could easily give her several more months to, if we're lucky, potentially another year or two.
Tumblr doesn't like outside links so I'm going to add the link to our fundraiser in a reblog and in the comments. Even if you yourself can't donate, please consider spreading and signal boosting so we can reach a larger audience!
Smokey says thank you for helping her, whether through donations or reblogs, everything helps. 🐈⬛💕
I know we're all broke and struggling on here, especially around holiday seasons and given other world situations. That said, if anyone has even a few bucks to spare, I would really appreciate it- my darling cat Smokey was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago (July 2024) and needs to get a mammary tumor removed in order to improve her quality of life and hopefully extend the time she has. Various vets I've spoken with have said this surgery could easily give her several more months to, if we're lucky, potentially another year or two.
Tumblr doesn't like outside links so I'm going to add the link to our fundraiser in a reblog and in the comments. Even if you yourself can't donate, please consider spreading and signal boosting so we can reach a larger audience!
Smokey says thank you for helping her, whether through donations or reblogs, everything helps. 🐈⬛💕
I know we're all broke and struggling on here, especially around holiday seasons and given other world situations. That said, if anyone has even a few bucks to spare, I would really appreciate it- my darling cat Smokey was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago (July 2024) and needs to get a mammary tumor removed in order to improve her quality of life and hopefully extend the time she has. Various vets I've spoken with have said this surgery could easily give her several more months to, if we're lucky, potentially another year or two.
Tumblr doesn't like outside links so I'm going to add the link to our fundraiser in a reblog and in the comments. Even if you yourself can't donate, please consider spreading and signal boosting so we can reach a larger audience!
Smokey says thank you for helping her, whether through donations or reblogs, everything helps. 🐈⬛💕
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