Accurate registration can be difficult when printing multi-block linocuts. Offset printing will show you exactly where your design will sit on each block, allowing you to cut a set of blocks that will print in perfect alignment.  Begin by preparing a registration board. This will need to be large enough for your lino block plus space above for registration pins. Lay out your piece of lino and stick mount board to at least one corner around it to allow your lino block to be placed in the same spot every time. Use parcel tape to stick a pair of registration pins to the top of the board. We will use mylar to offset the wet ink from one block to another. Mylar is ideal for a few reasons: it's transparent, allowing us to see where the design sits on the blocks and check the ink has transferred fully. it's non-absorbent, so the ink will stay wet for longer it can be cleaned and used again for other projects Cut a piece of mylar large enough to cover the lino block and reach up to the registration pins. Place it on top of your registration board. Clip one registration tab into each pin and stick it to the mylar with masking tape.  First, carve one block of your design. Choose the key layer that gives the main detail or outline of an image: the key block. (Watch this video to see how the key block in this project was carved). Ink up your key block using water-based ink (we're using Magenta Schmincke Ink). Water-based ink will dry quickly on the block so that we can work into it quickly with our carving tools. Place the inked up lino on the registration board, using the mount board corners as a guide. Attach the mylar to the registration pins and gently lower it onto the lino. Using a baren, spoon or your hand, rub on the back of the mylar to transfer the ink.  Lift the mylar and replace the lino with a new piece, making sure to snuggle it up to the mount board corners. Lay the mylar down and burnish again by rubbing on the back to transfer the ink to the block. Repeat this by re-inking and transferring to mylar for as many blocks as are needed for the final print. Leave the print to dry. As we're using water-based inks, this shouldn't take too long. Wipe the wet ink from the key block and mylar.  We can now use the offset print to show up where to carve the second block. For this design, we want a solid block of colour to fill in the jumper, with a few lines carved out for detail.  When all your blocks are carved, prepare your printing paper (we're using Shoji) using the same method as when we prepared the mylar.  Ink up the first block. If you are using a different colour, it's advisable to first clean the offset print from the lino in case of transference. You could use water-based or oil-based ink for this.  Print the first block onto the paper using the registration pins and tabs. Use a baren or spoon to hand burnish the print. You could also print using a press. Print subsequent layers on top. The registration pins and tabs will ensure the paper goes down in the same place each time, meaning you can swap between blocks, pieces of paper and colours without ruining the registration. You may want to print all the layers of the print on one test piece of paper, and then work back into the blocks to refine the carving before printing an entire edition. Ideally, wait for each layer to dry before printing on top (especially if using oil-based inks).  For this project you will need: Piece of board to use for registration  Mount board Ternes Burton Registration Pins and Tabs Masking Tape Parcel Tape Lino x 2 (or more for more layers) Cutting Tools Mylar Water-based relief printing ink (like Schmincke) - for offset printing Relief printing ink for your final print - this could be water-based or oil-based. Baren or spoon Paper to print onto (we're using Shoji)

Accurate registration can be difficult when printing multi-block linocuts. Offset printing will show you exactly where your design will sit on each block, allowing you to cut a set of blocks that will print in perfect alignment.  Begin by preparing a registration board. This will need to be large enough for your lino block plus space above for registration pins. Lay out your piece of lino and stick mount board to at least one corner around it to allow your lino block to be placed in the same spot every time. Use parcel tape to stick a pair of registration pins to the top of the board. We will use mylar to offset the wet ink from one block to another. Mylar is ideal for a few reasons: it's transparent, allowing us to see where the design sits on the blocks and check the ink has transferred fully. it's non-absorbent, so the ink will stay wet for longer it can be cleaned and used again for other projects Cut a piece of mylar large enough to cover the lino block and reach up to the registration pins. Place it on top of your registration board. Clip one registration tab into each pin and stick it to the mylar with masking tape.  First, carve one block of your design. Choose the key layer that gives the main detail or outline of an image: the key block. (Watch this video to see how the key block in this project was carved). Ink up your key block using water-based ink (we're using Magenta Schmincke Ink). Water-based ink will dry quickly on the block so that we can work into it quickly with our carving tools. Place the inked up lino on the registration board, using the mount board corners as a guide. Attach the mylar to the registration pins and gently lower it onto the lino. Using a baren, spoon or your hand, rub on the back of the mylar to transfer the ink.  Lift the mylar and replace the lino with a new piece, making sure to snuggle it up to the mount board corners. Lay the mylar down and burnish again by rubbing on the back to transfer the ink to the block. Repeat this by re-inking and transferring to mylar for as many blocks as are needed for the final print. Leave the print to dry. As we're using water-based inks, this shouldn't take too long. Wipe the wet ink from the key block and mylar.  We can now use the offset print to show up where to carve the second block. For this design, we want a solid block of colour to fill in the jumper, with a few lines carved out for detail.  When all your blocks are carved, prepare your printing paper (we're using Shoji) using the same method as when we prepared the mylar.  Ink up the first block. If you are using a different colour, it's advisable to first clean the offset print from the lino in case of transference. You could use water-based or oil-based ink for this.  Print the first block onto the paper using the registration pins and tabs. Use a baren or spoon to hand burnish the print. You could also print using a press. Print subsequent layers on top. The registration pins and tabs will ensure the paper goes down in the same place each time, meaning you can swap between blocks, pieces of paper and colours without ruining the registration. You may want to print all the layers of the print on one test piece of paper, and then work back into the blocks to refine the carving before printing an entire edition. Ideally, wait for each layer to dry before printing on top (especially if using oil-based inks).  For this project you will need: Piece of board to use for registration  Mount board Ternes Burton Registration Pins and Tabs Masking Tape Parcel Tape Lino x 2 (or more for more layers) Cutting Tools Mylar Water-based relief printing ink (like Schmincke) - for offset printing Relief printing ink for your final print - this could be water-based or oil-based. Baren or spoon Paper to print onto (we're using Shoji)

Hi, I’m Ian Phillips, a printmaker based in Mid Wales. I’m originally from Leicestershire and studied illustration at Leicester Polytechnic. After graduation I attempted the life of a freelance Illustrator in London, but quite quickly, well after a few years, realised it wasn’t right me for me. Or more accurately I wasn’t right for it. I then tried a range of occupations from Postman to Pub landlord until the turn of the millennium encouraged fresh starts. So I moved to Machynlleth in Wales. There I re-established my interest in relief printmaking and finally gave up completely on the idea of illustration, or anything else, as a career. Instead I began to wander the beautiful landscape of Wales for my subject matter, my inspiration and my peace of mind. I’ve been there ever since and couldn’t imagine doing any other subject matter with any other process. Describe your printmaking process

 Well it would previously have been a simple description of the linocut reduction process, with the occasional multi block now and then. Now, however, the process is a bit more involved. I’ll begin with a walking trip along a specific area or long distance footpath and fill a sketchbook with drawings and notes. I then like to produce the work in the same chronological order as the work is produced so I start at the beginning of the sketchbook. This sketch is then enlarged to the specific size of the woodblock I’m working on. 450mm x 600mm for example. The tracing then has a thin Japanese tissue (usually about 10-18gsm) stuck down over it and the original drawing is traced/redrawn using a Chinese brush and ink. The aim is to recapture the energy and spontaneity I felt doing the original drawing, which can be lost during the tracing and transferring process. Once dry this will be glued, face down of course, onto a block with rice paste glue. This is the key block and will be cut to give a line drawing of  the final print. Then everything but the inked lines of the drawings are cut away.  After a quick clean to remove the remaining tissue paper this block is printed onto more woodblocks.
All of these blocks will then be cut depending on which area/colour of the image they’ll print. Then the playing with inks start, proofing different colours and tones to decide how the final print will look. This is the point at which the new secret method of Tabi Hanga is deployed. Once I am happy with decisions made during proofing. I’ll print the whole edition.  How and where did you learn to print? I did a degree in Graphic design and Illustration, at Leicester Polytechnic, and did a printmaking module in my final year. Though I enjoyed it, it didn’t really grab me as much as you’d expect looking at my later career path. Once I’d left college and started working as a freelance Illustrator I started experimenting with print more and more. Eventually becoming completely obsessed. I’ve had no formal printmaking education, but learnt everything by deciding what I wanted from a picture then trying to work out how I could achieve a result I was happy with.  The only formal lesson I’ve had have been a 2017 trip to The Purple Bamboo Studio in Hanzhou China, for two weeks with Pine Feroda, to learn Water Woodblock. Which was a fantastic experience and did change the way I produce my work. Then more recently in 2023 a rather enjoyable Collagraph weekend with Charles Shearer at our very own Handprinted studio. Other than that I learnt a great deal of the technique and process of woodblock printing working with the other members of the Pine Feroda collective over our ten year period. Why printmaking?  What’s that saying; “For those that know, no explanation is necessary, for those that don’t, no explanation will suffice. “ If that’s too trite, it’s just brilliant. It’s art and craft together. It’s mixing colours and playing with sharp tools, it’s traditional and modern, set about with technical limitations and yet somehow endlessly flexible. Frustrating and fabulous and you’ll never master it completely, so you have an absorbing task to try and get better at for as long as you want to put the work in.  Where do you work?

 I am very lucky to have a wonderful studio on the top floor of a building in Tywyn, on the coast of Mid Wales all to myself. It has all the things a good studio should have. Huge floor to ceiling north facing windows, South facing ceiling velux, worn wooden floors, and loads of space and a beautiful press. Oh and did I mention it’s above a cafe and Tapas bar? Describe a typical day in your studio Like most self employed artists, there isn’t really a ‘typical’ day. Though I tend to come to the studio Mon- Friday it really depends on what I have on. I could be printing, doing admin, framing work. A better question would be what is my ‘preferred’ type of day. Which is, of course, to spend the whole day lost in the carving of a block, or equally preferential is sitting on the side of a mountain, drawing the view, and eating a nice sandwich.   How long have you been printmaking?  I started using a rough form of printmaking in my Illustrations, once I’d left College, when I was about 22. So lets say over 30 years and leave it there. What inspires you? Outside. The landscape, pure and simple. The colours, the shapes, the light, the forms, the patterns, the textures and then how they all interact and balance and contrast with one other.  What is your favourite printmaking product? Bit of a cheat answer as it’s not a thing but a collection of ‘things’ that allows my favourite process. So my current favourite(s) are; A lovely sheet of Shin Ply or Japanese Ply, with some Ino Shi 18gsm tissue stuck face down onto it. Tissue on which I’ve traced out my sketch in Chinese brush and ink. Then, once it is dry, I spend weeks carving this key block with my trusty, left handed, hangito.  What have you made that you are most proud of?

 Not sure I like the word proud… however the work I am most satisfied with at the moment is the new experimental process, I am developing with Wuon Gean Ho and Judith Westcott, called Tabi Hanga. It’s really showing more and more depth the more I play with it and the more I use it the more I love the results it gives me.   Where can we see your work? Where do you sell?

 Through my website of course, on which there is a list of the galleries that hold my work. I’m also at brilliant shows like The Great Print Show at Rheged for example. See press for details.  What will we be seeing from you next?

 I’ll be working through the sketches for my Cadair Idris series and producing those prints. Which will give me a chance too further develop the Tabi Hanga process. After that I’ve got a few more projects in mind I’d like to get started on, perhaps a coastal path here, maybe a Ridgeway there.  Do you have any advice for other printmakers and creatives?
 Hmm one aways has to be careful about offering advice. Implies the offeree knows more than the person to whom the advice is offered. But here goes with a few pointers: Try sh*t out. Play around and have fun. Be brave and print/paint/draw as if no-one else is going to see it, ever. It doesn’t matter if other people love it or hate it, how do YOU feel about it. And never, ever, feel slighted if some anonymous selection committee rejects your work for some show or other. It really, really, is all completely subjective.

Measure Pattern Tape is a really useful bit of kit for your printmaking projects. This adhesive ruler tape can be stuck onto your printing surface or board to help lay out your designs accurately. It's self-adhesive and we've even found it can be lifted up and re-used a couple of times until the stickiness is gone (this will depend on your surface). Here, we use it to help us register blocks for printing onto fabric. This way we can make sure our spacing is accurate and straight.  We're block printing using Madder, Cutch and Co. inks which are made using natural pigments. They can be used for screen printing too, but we're using them with a stencil foam brush to apply to a block.    Pin your fabric onto a padded surface. Unroll some measure tape and stick it down on the fabric where you would like your first row of prints. Use a stencil foam brush to apply ink to a block. This is Madder, Cutch and Co ink in Burghley Blue. This mounted square lino block has been carved using the method in this project.  Position the block face down on the fabric, using the measure tape as a guide. We're printing in alternate colours, which means we need to leave the correct size gap between the prints. The measure tape will show us the exact space needed for a print to fill in the gap with another colour later - in this case, 7.5cm. Further rows can be printed above, using the gaps as guides.  Our second colour is Madder Red.  The gaps left between the blue prints should exactly fit the red prints. Measure tape is also useful for blocks that do not sit right next to one another, like these round printmaking stamps, to ensure even spacing. Crosses drawn on the back of the stamps will help us to line them up. Blocks without clear printing edges can be particularly difficult to print accurately.. Here we have a small block mounted on a baren to ease the printing process by making it cleaner, less fiddly and easier to exert pressure on the block.  To place this print accurately, we can use the measurements in line with the edges of the baren (or wooden block etc.), even though we cannot see where the stamp will print. For even more accuracy, the edge of the baren or block can be lined up with the tape to give a straighter line of prints.  To heat set these prints, use an iron on a hot setting (appropriate for the fabric) and heat until the print feels hot to the touch. For this project you will need: Padded surface Fabric to print onto Measure Pattern Yojo Tape Madder, Cutch and Co inks Stencil Foam Brushes Blocks, e.g. Mounted Lino, Mastercut Printing Stamps,  Baren (from Lino Cutter and Baren Kit) - optional Iron