There’s a big hill near my house. Sometimes, a bicyclist will really pedal hard on the downhill. It’s good for the ego. It’s also crazy dangerous, since braking and steering become much more difficult, and high speed gives you less time to react. And sometimes cars rev their way up the hill, with the drivers […]

Soon after the first election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four became a bestseller again. Shooting to the top of the American charts, the novel that inspired the term “Orwellian” passed Danielle Steel’s latest opus, the poetry of Rupi Kaur, the eleventh Diary of a Wimpy Kid […]

What if someone is just making stuff up? Years ago, I worked with the supermarket tabloid to make an ironic, shouty, somewhat funny book that has turned out to match much of the discourse we find surrounding us. When we flew down to Florida to meet their team, I was amazed to discover that this […]

Working a dull civil service job ill-suited to your talents does not make you a writer, but plenty of famous writers have worked such jobs. Nathaniel Hawthorne worked at a Boston customhouse for a year. His friend Herman Melville put in considerably more time—19 years—as a customs inspector in New York, following in the footsteps of […]

Block printing onto fabric is such a fun way to create your own designs. Jigsaw printing allows you to carve just one block to print a multi-coloured design. By cutting our carved block into jigsaw pieces we can ink them up separately and print onto the fabric, knowing they'll slot back together perfectly. Choose a soft lino for this technique, as we need to be able to cut it up with a scalpel -  Softcut a great choice. Cut your block using lino cutting tools and then dissect it into chunks using a scalpel - each one will print a different colour. For details on how to carve a block for jigsaw linocut, read our blog post here. Read on for how to print your design. You could give new life to an old block by slicing up a block you've already made and finished with. Printing onto a slightly padded table surface will help get good ink coverage. Our table is covered with a dense blanket and thick cotton. We're printing onto a tote bag. You can use YoJo Measure Pattern Tape to mark out where your design will be printed - this is especially helpful if you're printing a repeat pattern. We have stuffed our bag with a flat piece of newsprint to stop any excess ink going through and staining the back. We're using Fabric Paint for this print. You could also use a pre-mixed Screen Printing Fabric Ink like Speedball, Permaset or Madder, Cutch and Co. When using Fabric Paints or Screen Printing Ink, you'll need a Textile Roller, as a standard roller will not turn in this slippery texture.  Our first Fabric Paint is a mix of Black and Chocolate. The ink will be thicker on the roller and the block than a standard block printing ink and there will be more texture to the print on fabric. Place the inked up block face down on the fabric and press down hard. Ink up again and print in the next position. You can also print using a split fountain (colour gradient) by blending from one colour to another on the roller. Place 2 blobs of colour next to each other and drag them down the roller to blend. Ink up the next shape and print in its space. Repeat with each shape, building up the design. We decided to add a little extra element to the design using softcut offcuts cut with scissors into worm shapes, and inked up with a Stencil Foam Brush in a mix of Orange and Opaque White Fabric paint. The Opaque White in the mix allows the colour to show up on top of the dark soil background. When the ink is dry, heat set the prints with an iron on a hot setting. Iron until the prints fell too hot to comfortably touch. To make this project you will need: Softcut Lino Lino Cutting Tools Scalpel Cutting Mat Tote Bag or fabric to print onto Padded surface Yojo Measure Tape (optional) Fabric Paint (or pre-mixed Screen Printing Fabric Ink like Speedball, Permaset or Madder, Cutch and Co.) Textile Roller Inking Tray Stencil Foam Brush (optional) Iron