Printing with Plasticine

   I've recently been coming up with ideas for the Saturday kids art class I teach occasionally.

   To help me, my Mum gave me some art books she's collected over the years to look at.

   You can tell she's had this one for a long time because she's written her maiden name on it.

   I came across this fun idea for printing and wanted to try it for myself.

Luckily, I already had the two things I needed; plasticine and a cotton reel. I knew I'd been holding on to them for a reason.

I covered the cotton reel in plasticine and found some things to imprint into it. I started with a circle pattern using buttons, beads and the end of a paint brush.

I think the middle strip is the best as there was a bit too much excess paint on the first (bottom) try.

Most of the paint comes off the plasticine as you roll it so there's only a little bit left to wash off. Then you can smoosh (technical term) the plasticine together and start again.

Next I tried imprinting a piece of lace trim on the plasticine.

Again, the second roll looks the best as there was just the right amount of paint on the roller at that point.

I also did a print where I'd imprinted a square wooden bead and a lolly pop stick in the plasticine.

One thing about this technique is that as you roll, you end up squashing the plasticine so the shapes change. This means you can't really use the plasticine to get the same pattern over and over again.

Then I thought about adding to the plasticine base instead of imprinting into it. I used more plasticine to make this flowery pattern.

It turned out really nicely. For this one I applied the paint with a sponge so it would only go on the raised parts, instead of dipping the whole thing in paint.

Then I tried adding circles of plasticine which turned into ovals as I printed.

So that was a fun new technique to try out.

What objects do you think would make a good print?

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