After posting about my latest lino print, titled Cat nap, I've had some people ask if I was going to do a print run in any other colours. I hadn't intended to, but 'orange' was requested by multiple people.
Not one to disappoint, I have of course spent the morning printing ginger cats and it's glorious seeing the studio fill up with these beauties. Printing these hasn't been without drama though. I didn't just want to use a standard orange straight out of the tube, so I mixed light orange and yellow ochre together for a more softer and less zingy orange. I used Cranfield colours caligo safe wash ink which are the only inks I ever use.
I'd never intended in printing these in anything other than black, so after the initial print run, I cleaned up the block with vegetable oil and washing up liquid, dried it, and put it away. I can't have done a great job of cleaning it as after the first orange print pull this morning, there were some black marks coming through where the outer stars are. I feel conflicted over these, it's really only a small mark on a big print - however they are imperfect, but many lino prints are and for me, that's part of the charm.
After 4 prints like this, I downed tools and went and scrubbed the lino block with an ink removing chemical called Zest It. I made sure I had scrubbed every nook and cranny across the whole block so no black (or orange) would remain. The first print after that still had a tiny bit of black on, but after that all the prints came out perfectly.
But I don't think I can sell those at full price in good conscience. Out of the 10 prints I managed today, only four are perfect. Both will be listed here next week once they're dry and you can select which you'd prefer - the ones with the small black marks will be £5 cheaper.
I made a video of the orange mix if you want to see it :)
@georginadoodles Printing ‘Cat nap’ in orange 🧡 #fyp #fypシ #foryoupage #printmaker #linocut #linoprint #catnap #catsoftiktok #cats #gingercat #gingercatsoftiktok #crazycatlady ♬ Caramel Latte - Prod. By Rose