I must say there have been a few changes to the artists linoleum used to make linocuts/linoprints over the last 30 years or so. Many people will remember those old hard brown squares of lino we valiantly tried to carve in our high school art classes! Well they have progressed since then…thank goodness!!

Below are some of the samples of the lino that I have used over the past 20 years – much of which is from the past 10 years.

Just a few small thoughts of my experiences with these different types of artists lino.

This is the original hard lino from a very long time ago….

 Nostalgic…

but it is hard to carve, turning many a high school student off linocuts for life

 

  This is the original grey silkcut lino/

I used this over a few years

Many of my earlier linoprints use this lino.

 

  This is the light brown lino silkcut replaced the lovely grey with, assuring me it was exactly the same just a different colour – I did not find this to be the case. I found it difficult to carve.

So sourced some other linoleum listed below….

 

  This is a very flexible easy to carve lino.

It has a smooth surface for printing and does not need to be heated for carving.

However I found for fine detail work it does have a tendency to chip off a little.

 

This is Armstrong dark brown lino.

I have found it carves nicely/easily but again can ‘chip’ off smaller fine details more easily than other lino but a little less than the light red brown lino above.

 

  This is the current light grey silkcut lino. It is a little firmer to carve than the above brown lino but it does chip less so can be better for finer detail.

I must say I do like this new style the silkcut have produced.

 

Copyright – Lynette Weir