Linocut print making technique and wallpaper
Linocut is a printmaking technique and is a variant of woodcut. In woodcut printmaking a sheet of linoleum (often mounted on a wooden block) is used for the relief surface. The design is then cut into the linoleum surface with a sharp knife or scalpel, with the raised (uncarved or embossed) areas representing a reversal (inverse or mirror image) of the parts to be printed. The cut areas can then be pulled from the backing. The linoleum sheet is inked using a printing roller (known as a brayer), and then pressed onto paper or fabric. This printing method can be done by hand or by a machine.
As the material being carved has no particular direction to its grain and does not tend to split, it is easier to obtain certain artistic effects than with most woods, although the resultant prints lack the wood character of wood block printing. Linoleum is also much easier to cut than wood, which must be carved away, but the pressure of the printing process degrades the image plate much faster. It is also more difficult to create larger image works due to the material’s fragility.
Linoleum as a floor covering dates to the 1860s, but the linocut method was invented by the artists of Die Brücke in Germany between 1905-13. At first they described their prints as woodcuts, which sounded more respectable.
Colour linocuts can be made by using a different colour block for each colour, as in woodcut. But, as Pablo Picasso demonstrated quite effectively, such prints can also be achieved using a single piece of linoleum in what is called the ‘reductive’ print method. Essentially, after each successive colour is imprinted onto the paper, the artist then cleans the lino plate and goes back into the linoleum, cutting away what will not be imprinted for the subsequently applied colour.
Due to ease of use, linocut is widely used in schools to introduce children to the art of printmaking; similarly, non-professional artists often use linocut rather than woodcut. Wallpaper / Wallcovering where made like this once but are now replaced by Flexo Printers and Surface Printers.
More recently digitally printed wallpaper has been used to replicate this effect as with a computer anything can be achieved. The advantage of a digitally printed wallcovering is that you do not have to engrave a single roller, which dependent on where you go can be in excess of £1000.
You could also have a rotary screen engraver engrave you a rotary screen and this effect can be made to look like Surface or flexo printing.