You will need:
A good, flat, sturdy table to work on.
Table covering if you don’t want it to get covered in paint!
Plus: scrap paper, rags or kitchen towel, vegetable oil, a bin bag, gloves (optional), objects, textures and tools to play and print with (optional)
A flat surface to roll ink onto- this could be a piece of plastic, perspex, glass, flat ceramic tile, or placemat. This will essentially be your printing ‘plate’, so it’s size will dictate how big you can print. If you only have something small, that’s fine- you can still be playful!
A rubber roller- if you want to create even blocks of printed colour this is pretty essential. You can get them from most art shops these days as well as online- https://www.greatart.co.uk/printmaking/relief-printing/barens-and-rollers/. and here- https://intaglioprintmaker.com/product-category/rollers/economy-rollers/
You will want one that’s at least 15cms wide, and I prefer the ones with plastic or wooden handles rather than the metal handled ones.
Inks or paints
I use oil paint, and if you have those you can use them too.
Anything called block printing inks, relief inks or lino inks will also work and slow drying acrylics. Please note: normal acrylics and gouache are not suitable as they dry too quickly to print from.
There are lots to choose from here- https://www.greatart.co.uk/printmaking/relief-printing/printing-inks/ and https://intaglioprintmaker.com/product-category/inks/relief-inks/ and here https://www.speedballart.com/our-product-lines/speedball-printmaking/speedball-blockrelief-printing/block-printing-inks/ . You can also often get something suitable from local art shops if you don’t have oil paints.
Please check if what you have is oil based (oil paint, some printing inks) or water based (some block printing inks, slow drying acrylics) as this will affect the thickness of paper you use. Oil based inks can be used on any paper, but water based will need slightly thicker paper.
If you use water based inks you can clean them up with water or baby wipes, we will clean up oil based inks with vegetable oil and rags/kitchen towel. We will be doing a lot of cleaning up between prints, so you will need to have a fair amount of whatever you’re using.
Paper
You’ll only be using hand pressure to get the ink off the plate onto your paper, so the thinner the paper the better. This could be tissue, Chinese or Japanese paper (Washi is good)- suppliers here- https://www.greatart.co.uk/papers/specialised-and-recommended-papers/asian-papers/ and here- https://intaglioprintmaker.com/product-category/papers/paper-packs-sketchbooks/japanese-paper-pads-packs/ .
As a general guide try to pick paper about 30gsm or under. DON’T get papers billed as traditional printmaking papers for etching etc, as they will be too heavy for hand printmaking.
It could also be any art paper you have lying around, cartridge paper, computer paper, old maps , old sheet music, even newspaper (these last will give a mixed media, collage feel to your prints). Each type of paper will print differently, so it’s good to have a selection.
Please note that water based inks will need slightly thicker paper to print on as detailed above. For instance tissue and the lighter Asian papers might curl and buckle.
Burnishers
A burnisher is a tool to apply even pressure to the back of your paper to take a print. If you have thin enough paper, then you may be able to just use hand pressure.
Otherwise, an up ended clean jam jar, wooden spoon (not so even, but interesting), a spare roller or rolling pin will work .
You can also buy a baren, especially made for the job. Either traditional Japanese bamboo barens- available here– or more robust ones made by Speedball- available here and here or Abig- try these ones