I’m trying to write a little bit about some of the materials, techniques and equipment that I use for my printing. These will be my personal opinions about what works for me and how well. Anything I say about cost, value and quality is from my personal experience and I’m well aware that the way we all work and our preferences and values are very individual.
Out of all of the equipment used in printmaking, I thought I’d start with printing rollers because I've just bought a few new different types/makes.
I'll start with a little bit about the function and pros and cons of each type I use, then go on to explain a few of the techniques that I use and finish with a bit about care and cleaning.
These are the printing rollers that I currently use for my own work; simply stored on hooks, on a board, hung by the printing area.
Rollers should never be stored with the rubber touching anything. They will soon become distorted and develop dinks and flat spots. It's good practice to never put a roller down on the rubber, whether inked or not, unless it's being used or cleaned.
I'll say a few lines about the pros and cons of each type.
Incidentally, the softness/hardness of a roller is measured in 'shores' the lower the number the softer.
Japanese Rollers
These are two soft Japanese rollers that have served me well for several years, I only use the smaller size, 30mm wide x 45mm diameter but their increasing stickiness is becoming something of a problem. Some kind of resin is constantly coming out of the rubber, forming a very shiny surface, like a varnish that never quite sets. You can see it in the picture below. Yes, I’ve seen and tried lots of different advice to keep them usable, talc or cornflower after using, or leaving to soak in different thinners and cleaners. Nothing has solved the problem long term. I think this has also happened with a couple of other brands. I had a small Speedball Deluxe roller that developed the same problem. I’ll try to carry on with them despite the sticky problem.
I can’t remember how much they were to buy, I’d say they are midrange. Someone had posted on FB about replacing the small red plastic handles for larger wooden ones and this has made them even nicer to use, I’m sorry I can’t remember who’s genius idea this was.
There is still a red rubber, hard version, Japanese roller available from some suppliers in the UK but it's difficult to blend colours with a hard roller without the edges leaving marks.
I’ve not found many narrow rollers of a good quality that might be an alternative.
Pros - small, delicate and good quality. The soft rubber blends edges of colours well. Cons - The original red plastic handles are a bit small for sausage fingers. Sticky! You can't leave them in contact with paper now at any time, even after cleaning.
Abig Rollers
These Abig rollers are fairly good and they aren't very expensive. These two are 10mm and 20mm wide with a 50mm diameter. I’ve had problems with ink/solvent getting under the edges of the narrow layer of rubber at the rim of two of the larger versions of this type of roller in the past. It gradually makes them wider at the ends than the middle and eventually unusable.
Pros - A good price. The slightly larger diameter gives a longer roll out. Cons - Thinnish layer of rubber that the ink can get beneath. There is no stand, they have to be laid on their side when not being used. One of mine has a slightly off center spindle.
Korean rollers
I’ve just bought these Korean rollers from Handprinted (UK). I’ve only made a few experiments with them so far but they seem OK. These two are 32mm diameter and 20mm and 30mm wide.
They are a nice soft rubber, I'd guess around 25 shore. The two smaller ones may well take the place of the Japanese rollers in future projects ... we'll see how they work out.
Pros - Fairly low priced. The build quality is OK. the rubber is quite soft and suits the way I work. Cons - They are quite a small diameter, so they don't have much of a roll out. They don't have stands so have to be laid down on their sides when inked up (or any other time really).
Hawthorn Style Roller Round Edged
I bought this roller thinking it was going to be so useful but now I don't seem to be using it as much as I'd hoped. It has a rounded profile so it produces a very thin line. It has a large diameter at 75mm x 10mm wide. I use it if I need to ink up a fine piece of grass or foliage. It's a bit fiddly to use but the build quality is superb. I can't see it on the Hawthorn website now but it was under £50. They still have similar square edged rollers with a very long roll out (circumference) but these are now rather expensive.
Pros - Great build quality, solid, good bearings, large handle and stainless steel. Cons - Limited , although maybe I should apply a bit more experimentation and imagination to ways in which it could be used!
Hawthorn Handy Rollers
I really like these Handy Rollers. They now come in two diameters and two hardnesses. I use the softer 25 shore version. Here are my two 50mm wide rollers, one is 60mm ish and the other (my favourite)75mm in diameter. The wider one is 156mm wide x 75 mm diameter, a good buy if you are looking for a middle to high range roller. They are well engineered, well balanced and replacement rollers are also offered. It's worth looking at the full range. Ironbridge Fine Art offer very similar, high quality rollers with painted black handles, well worth considering (link at the bottom).
Pros - Well engineered. large diameters are available. Quality rubber and bearings and the handles work well for me. I find them solid but not to heavy. Cons - maybe heavy at the larger sizes for some. The thread ends of the bolts on the handles are tricky to clean. A higher price.
Hawthorn Student Rollers
I find these to be great everyday, midrange rollers. well made, great rubber and a good diameter. I use the medium, 38 shore ones. Until Hawthorn came out with the 'Handy' rollers, I probably used these more than any others. All are 50mm diameter.
The six inch (145mm) roller would be my recommendation to anyone wanting to upgrade from the Essdee range. At the moment they are available for around £43. The other two rollers shown are 50mm and 70mm but other widths are usually available. Once again Ironbridge Fine Arts offer something very similar.
Pros - Well made and a good price. To me they hit the sweet spot on cost against quality. Cons - The thread ends of the bolts on the handles are difficult to clean.
Lawrence Artist Quality Rubber Roller
These really are the smartest rollers to look at and use. Each one a beautiful piece of engineering. I have a rubber version but they also come in durathene, which is a finer softer, clear green material but I'm not sure it would survive the handling I might give it, so I've never been tempted to invest. The rubber version is soft at 30 shore and comes in two diameters. This is the larger 64mm version and mine is 250mm wide. Lots of options are available. It's a large beastie, that I use for rolling up large areas on large lino plates.
Pros - It feels good and solid to use, a professional tool. Very well made, the tension is adjustable on the spindle, the handle is comfortable. So good to look at! Cons - Price. Using the larger sizes will mean you won't have to go to the gym for a few days!o)
Textures
I had these two old rollers that didn't work very well because of flat spots of dinks in the rubber. I've cut textures into them with lino cutting gouges (watch your fingers!). They are good for giving areas a subtle mottled texture, when rolling up the lino or experimenting with more direct methods.
Other Rollers
There are of course many other good rollers available on the market. I've used the excellent ones supplied by Intaglio Printmakers in the past and found them to be of very high quality.
The range of Essdee and Speedball rollers at the lower end of the market are perfectly serviceable, my main advice would be that one or two good quality tools are better than a number of cheaper ones. That said, I'm still always on the lookout for the latest toy! I quite like the look of the new Arteina rollers, at least to try, but I don't think they are available in the UK yet.
I've not mentioned the usually much larger spindle rollers at all, mostly because I've found no need for them. They are mainly for printmakers who like to cover the lino plate in ink in one roll. I've never found it to be necessary but I think it's down to personal taste, experience and how deep your pockets are!
Rolling out
I use a large piece of toughened glass to mix and roll out colours. It was found in a skip and is in a wooden frame that raises it a few inches higher than the bench. With a bit of white paper underneath (so that you can see the ink colour better) it is perfect for rolling out multiple colours at a comfortable height, important if you are printing all day(I'm not quite sure what it was manufactured for).
I mix up the colour I want just above the area where the ink is to be rolled out. This is the reservoir of ink, that's moved over as I need to add it, with the pallet knife. It is always better to add only a little ink, even if you need to top the ink up a several times, just to ink up the plate once.
I try to keep the ink to a neat rectangle based on the dimension (width) of the roller. It keeps the printing area neat and also means that the ink will remain useable longer (smaller surface area).
Rolling up
When I teach lino printing this is one of the hardest parts of the process for students to get used to. It's not about scrubbing or pushing the ink onto the surface of the lino. In fact no real pressure is needed to lift the ink off the glass and to lay it onto the surface of the lino. The roller will just slide across the surface of the glass sliding the ink around if you press too hard. If you put pressure on the roller on the lino, it will squidge the ink into the finer lines and around the edges of cut shapes, that will then show up as blobs on the final print. Try to use as thin a layer of ink as possible. If you are printing by hand it will be a balance between the thickness of the ink and the amount of pressure your chosen hand method can put on the paper to transfer the ink (remember it's easier to hand print on to thinner paper). When I started printing by hand, I found that I had to often clean off the lino after every 4-5 prints, to remove ink from finer lines, before continuing.
If you are using a press, you can usually get away with a thinner layer of ink.
The way I tend to work, sometimes rolling up small sections of the lino in different colours, usually 2-3 for each of the earlier layers, means I like to have a few smaller sized rollers to choose from. You can get quite painterly with this technique, there is no real need to keep exactly to edges. Colours can bleed, mix and blend, even giving mottled textures at times. It's hard to reproduce some of these blends exactly for every print in an edition, sometimes I don't even try to. This is now the main reason my editions are usually varied (V.E.).
Here I'm inking the lino for the second layer for this Swimming in Stars print.
This is a fuller video of the different layers of printing of Swimming in Stars
The lino rolled up for the third layer of the Blustery Day Badger print and the final result.
You have to be careful with this technique not to overink when blending the edges of colours on the lino. So it's important to keep the ink thin on the lino plate(more pressure is needed to print) and to occasionally blot with newsprint or even to clean the plate completely, to avoid filling in fine detail.
The lino rolled up for the fourth layer of the Magpie silver print and the final result.
I have rarely used the ‘rainbow roll’ technique, where several colours are rolled out on the glass and then this blend is transferred directly to the lino with a large roller. I know it is popular and works well for others
Cleaning up
So you've been printing all day and now it's time clean up!
The ink I usually use is Caligo Safewash from Cranfield, it's a modified linseed oil ink, that can be cleaned with soap and water. Sometimes I use their traditional oil based ink because the colour range is slightly wider. Whatever ink you use, it's good to start by rolling off the excess ink onto a bit of newsprint or an old magazine etc.
The choice of cleaning liquid, soapy water, cooking oil, white spirit or anything else depends on the ink and personal choice. I've been using biodegradable wet wipes to clean up Safewash recently (kinder to my manly hands!o).
I run the roller over clean newsprint while rubbing the top of the roller with paper towel soaked in the chosen cleaner (or wetwipe), paying special attention to the ends. Then just wipe any bits off the frame and hang the roller up to dry. I hopefully the video explains that better.
Properly cleaned and cared for, rollers should last a long time. I've developed this small group of rollers over several years and they represent quite an investment. They are integral to the way I work but will continue to change as the needs of my practice change.
Please feel free to comment or ask questions.
This has turned into quite an essay!
UK suppliers -
Handprinted - https://handprinted.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOorV7-el8iZALABLaKQ__LTaA1OHxOnqbfpEKfr4FGsY_GkqUUAm
Hawthorn - https://hawthornprintmaker.com/
Lawrence - https://www.lawrence.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOop7obhRKvVVbkGZ2Xw7Jfed0P1TTBbNcnmcwAETtY8NoqFC-U3K
Intaglio Printmaker - https://intaglioprintmaker.com/
Jacksons - https://www.jacksonsart.com/
Ironbridge Fine Arts - https://www.ironbridgeframing.co.uk/printmaking-equipment-materials-rollers/hand-rollers-and-spindle-rollers/
I learned a lot! Thanks for sharing your beautiful work & your process
Linda