Printmaking with Styrofoam - How to make a print

In this video, I will show you how to make a styrofoam print using block printing ink. First, set up your space and write your name on the back of the paper you are going to print on. For a clean workspace, place a sheet of copy paper or newspaper underneath your styrofoam plate and gather your ink and brayer. The brayer is the tool that rolls out the ink evenly. You will roll out the ink using one of the plastic trays to get it evenly applied to the brayer. Then, you will roll the brayer evenly over top of the styrofoam plate. Check to make sure you've covered all areas. When finished inking, place the inked brayer back onto the inking tray. You are now ready to create your print. Take your paper and immediately put it on top of the inked plate. It is important that you do this before allowing the ink to dry. Then, place a sheet of copy paper on top and use a tool called a barren to evenly press all over the paper. This will create your print. Carefully lift up your and you should see a print of your image in reverse on your paper. Set your print aside, and if time allows, you could even create another print with another color of ink or using another color of paper. Just remember, when you create your prints, you want to make sure your name is on the back side of the paper when you place it onto your inked printing plate. After creating at least one print, you will also need to clean up. Clean up will involve you washing your styrofoam plate and putting your prints on the drying rack. Let's look at how to do that next. You will wash your styrofoam plate using water. At the sink, it's important to turn on the water very gently. If the water comes out with too much pressure, it will spray the ink back up onto you. With the water gently washing off your printing plate, use your fingers if necessary to help get some of the ink off, especially in the cracks. But a little stain might remain and that is perfectly fine. After you finish washing your plate, then you will need to dry it with paper towels and store your styrofoam plate in your art folder. To store your wet prints, you will put your name on a large sheet of paper. You will then just place the wet prints onto the paper. You should not need to tape them, just allow them to sit on the paper and put the large paper carefully onto your class drying rack. Once the prints are dried, you can begin to store them in your art folder. If by chance a print falls off the drying rack, remember you should have your name also on the back of each print.