While playing around with designs for this month’s journal quilt, I hit a stumbling block — I wasn’t sure if the bird should be a linocut or a silkscreen. So I have wasted spent the last two weeks exploring the differences in look and feel between linocut and silkscreen prints.

I made a quick-and-dirty screen using sheer curtain fabric painted with with Mod Podge as a screen filler. Mixing a couple of drops of acrylic paint into the Mod Podge made it easier to see where I had already painted. I got the idea from Craft Grrrl.

I created prints using:
– fabric paint (works well, slightly stiff)
– Dye-Na-Flow + aloe gel (hard to get the consistency right)
– screen printing ink (works well but gives the fabric a very stiff hand)
– Golden Fluid Acrylic + Lumiere (works well, lighter hand than the screen printing ink)

I created almost the same image as a linocut (using Wondercut):

I had a hard time applying fabric paint, dye-na-flow + aloe gel, and Golden Fluid Acrylic + Lumiere to the block using my brayer. The brayer slid in the paint so I couldn’t get a nice thin coat so the block produced a gloppy image.
Frustrated, I found an old stamping pad and used it to apply Dye-Na-Flow + aloe gel to the linocut. I got a beautiful, crisp image with a nice soft hand.

So here are the two best results. On the left is the screen print using fabric paint. On the right is the linocut using Dyn-na-flow + aloe applied with a sponge.

Lots of fun and experimenting. Not much forward progress on the quilt.