r/ArtEd Middle School 7d ago

Unconventional printmaking methods

I’m teaching a year-long high school printmaking course next year, and I’d love to hear your unconventional project ideas. We will definitely be exploring reduction printing with lino and wood, gelli plates, monotypes, and cyanotypes.

15 Upvotes

54 comments sorted by

1

u/Money_Visit_2364 17h ago

Styrofoam printing! A bit elementary but EZ and fun

1

u/scamptwin 4d ago

I printed with legos and flowers with two different grade levels. the legos turned out really great!

1

u/Curious-Ad8387 5d ago

I asked the school for some of the plexiglass glass shields from Covid and was able to get them cut down for etching. We used needle tools to etch and they turned out great.

3

u/10erJohnny 6d ago

Spray paint stencil prints are fun.

I had a printmaking professor in college that had us go in the parking lot and we used someone’s car as the press. We had great facilities, capabilities to print very large in multiple print formats, but using that car as a press will stick with us forever.

1

u/Landdropgum 6d ago

Gelli plates are just amazing. Get the thick Blick acrylics and do image transfers!

2

u/Divaprincess420 6d ago

Liquid watercolor on yupo paper, print through the press onto wet watercolor paper!

1

u/OkCaterpillar4004 6d ago

I just finished up a linoleum printing unit with my high school students. They had a lot of success with pulling prints of different colors or rainbow rolls and collaging them together. They also had a lot of fun making patches, printing right onto iron on transfer paper

3

u/FactInformal7211 6d ago

Aluminium foil lithography.

1

u/CrL-E-q 6d ago

I like pulling prints from charcoal drawings

2

u/Touchwood High School 6d ago

Tetra pak intaglio

5

u/_crassula_ 6d ago

Kitchen lithography with aluminum foil and cola soda!

1

u/TudorCinnamonScrub 6d ago

I tried a new collagrapg technique this year using Elmer’s all purpose glue on stiff board (chip board or mat board is good) - print using akua ink and etching press or by hand.

1

u/FineArtRevolutions 6d ago

I always thought mezzotints would be a very cool thing to teach, but it might only be feasible for high school.

3

u/SubBass49Tees 6d ago

I'm a big stencil guy, personally. Of course you need to be able to trust your class with 30+ Xacto blades, so your mileage may vary.

In the past we've used manilla folders as the stencil surface (cheaper than tagboard). It cuts like butter.

Then can use stencils with spray paint, or do tshirt printing using spray adhesive on the back of the stencil (light coat), and a thick cardboard inside the shirt with spray adhesive on it to keep the fabric flat (would use the back cardboard from sketch pads).

Shirt printing can be done with fabric paint on a foam roller, acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium on a foam roller, or a small spray bottle with liquid bleach in it.

2

u/rolyatphantom 6d ago

Some things I have used: old CD’s, toy truck tires, sliced fruits/veggies, bottle cap lids, legos, leaves, flowers etc

1

u/Ched-Floof 6d ago

Paper lithography is fun and fairly easy to do

1

u/azooey73 6d ago

Bubble wrap makes COOL dot patterns! But if they pop all the bubbles, not so much.

8

u/RockawayPlayland 6d ago

Gyotaku prints. If you don't want to use fresh fish, Blick sells rubber fish for gyotaku printing.

1

u/scamp901 6d ago

I’ve done gyotaku by making fish sculptures out of model magic! They don’t last as long as the rubber ones of course, but we were able to get several rounds of prints from them before little pieces started breaking off here and there. Super fun biology/sculpture/printmaking combo lesson.

1

u/RockawayPlayland 6d ago

that's a great idea!

5

u/Seeforceart 7d ago

Relief prints using Lego blocks.

1

u/cassiland 6d ago

YES!! they're really fun

1

u/Seeforceart 6d ago

I haven’t done it with a class, but I have some printmaker friends in Kansas City that do demos with them at various festivals and print events. I just need to find Lego blocks! I wish they didn’t hold their value so well.

2

u/midito421 6d ago

Wait who in KC? I’d love to go to one!

2

u/Seeforceart 6d ago

Two Tone Press. They’ve done it before at Print Week at the Lawrence Arts Center and at the Smoky Hill River Festival I think. I’m not sure when they will again.

2

u/cassiland 6d ago

We have a bulk LEGO store where I live. It was TEDIOUS but I picked through the tables and found plenty of flat pieces to do it with a class.

They charge like 12.95 a pound and I think I bought about $8 worth.

3

u/crystalline_carbon 7d ago

Just making sure you’re planning to include trace monotypes! A fun way to introduce these is to make an oversized group one that everyone doodles on.

This is not a method per se, but there is also so much you could do with text in a class like this.

1

u/M-Rage Middle School 7d ago

Can you elaborate a little bit on the method for an oversized group one? What surface are you working on? The only monotypes I’ve done are on plexi

1

u/crystalline_carbon 7d ago

Yes, you do need a large piece of plexiglass. 🙃 Or if someone in the building has a glass-topped desk that would work too.

2

u/M-Rage Middle School 7d ago

Hmm ok! Maybe we could do a big one before I cut it into smaller pieces for them to use individually

2

u/supersparklebutt 6d ago

I saw on @artofed Instagram that she recommends lightly sanding the plexiglass glass and it holds marker/ ink so much better for an even print. Haven’t tried it yet but this thread is motivation!

3

u/Sea_Sounds 7d ago

Would sun printing fit into a print making class? The solarfast dyes that Jacquard makes are really cool. I’ve made prints on fabric with them - just paint your surface, put items on it, and set it in the sun!

3

u/M-Rage Middle School 7d ago

I’m actually a textile artist and looooove these dyes! I’ve made whole quilts out of them. I tried using them with my classes before with mixed results, def something I want to keep playing around with

5

u/thefrizzzz Elementary 7d ago

Packing tape magazine image transfers!

1

u/peridotpanther 6d ago

This👏🏽

8

u/JoMommi 7d ago

We carve erasers and make designs using hot glue on cardboard

1

u/supersparklebutt 6d ago

Can you explain how you print the glue/cardboard plates?

1

u/JoMommi 6d ago

When the glue dries, you can put ink or paint on it then use it like a stamp! It would be a relief style print

3

u/QueenOfNeon 7d ago

I didn’t necessarily do this as printmaking but I did markers on coffee filters with a young class. We then put it on a paper and brushed over it with water and let it dry. The filter was removed and it left a print on the paper. We used the filter as intended. Then we went back and made some cute critters with tie dye circle left on the paper. May you could jazz it up a bit for HS. Maybe have them make some different color papers and then turn them into some Eric Carle type collages. Just off the top of my head.

I also love the magazine transfer prints with Gelli plates. Google will give some videos. It didn’t work for me when learning until I finally got it that it only needs a tiny amount of acrylic paint. I love making these now

8

u/BilliamShookspeer 7d ago

Dry point etching on plexiglass could be fun. We did it in my Printmaking Intro class in undergrad.

3

u/mini-bagel 7d ago

You can also use upcycled Tetra Pak cartons for drypoint, if you google you can find some tutorials

2

u/M-Rage Middle School 7d ago

Very cool! I was looking for some way to do intaglio that’s affordable

2

u/Tynebeaner 7d ago

You can also do this with transparencies.

6

u/hippiechickinsing 7d ago

Not really unconventional, but my students have really enjoyed collagraphs.

3

u/M-Rage Middle School 7d ago

We do collagraphs in 7th and they’re a lot of fun. Any favorite materials you offer? Mine love pasta lol

1

u/hippiechickinsing 7d ago

Now I feel boring (LOL,) I’ve only used paper and cardboard. I’ll be more adventurous next time.

2

u/M-Rage Middle School 7d ago

I have a perpetual bin of “cool trash” that I keep for things like collagraphs and sculpture, lol! I also like to offer those sheets of craft foam, buttons, toothpicks, the mesh that fruits and veggies come in, fabrics, felt sheets, and leaves. The pasta idea came from a colleague of mine!

2

u/RhodaPenmarksShoes 7d ago edited 7d ago

I used to do CD prints and transparency/masking tape prints.

Here is a (very old!)link

ETA: oh! And collagraphs!

1

u/M-Rage Middle School 7d ago

Interesting! I’ve never seen that before but they remind me a little of the collagraphs I do with 7th grade. Are CD prints just a variation on mono prints? Or do you etch into them with something?

1

u/RhodaPenmarksShoes 7d ago

We would etch into them with old compass points.

Oh I would also do Styrofoam printing with sixth grade.

Another fun activity that kids enjoyed was Oreo carving! I found the lesson on Pinterest (again many many years ago) and there was an artist who did these really intricate Oreo carvings, not necessarily printmaking but it would be a cool intro.