Giant Linocut Steam Roller Print at East London Printmakers

The East London Printmakers Giant Linocut Steam Roller Printing event was last weekend and was a great success. The event was a part of the ELP and Friends Fete and was timed to coincide with ‘ELP in Space’ - the annual members’ exhibition, which was shown this year at the Triangle Gallery at Space, right next to the studio. You can see the works in the exhibition, including 'Handbag', my linocut of a T-Rex with a handbag, here.

The giant linocut print was made by around 20 artists, both ELP members and others, over the period of a month. Many thanks to Intaglio Printmaker for sponsoring us for the linoleum. The theme of the print was ‘The London Fields’, which is the park behind the studio, featuring the lido, cricket pitch, playground and a host of random characters.

The print itself was 24ft long (7+metres) by 18in and was printed with a 4 tonne road roller (thanks to Demenex for their support). Boards were laid under the lino and we printed on wallpaper and then Fabriano (the much cheaper wallpaper worked better!) with a layer of vinyl flooring material on top to give a cushioning effect. The prints came out surprisingly well, there was some ‘ghosting’ in areas where the lino moved but other areas were nice and crisp. Next time we will try gluing the lino down onto the boards.

Scroll down for images of the fete and the steam roller printing…

Photos by Teresa Eng