Linoleum Prints

The subject of my creation is two lacrosse sticks crossed over one another. To make this stamp, I used a small rectangle piece of linoleum and carved out two small lacrosse sticks. I wanted them to be small because I like making small pieces of art and I wanted to be able to stamp it over my team picture (bottom right). At first I wanted the letters LAX over the lacrosse stick but I forgot to carve them backwards so they would stamp the right way. In the end, I like how I used just the two lacrosse sticks because even though it's simple, a lot can be done with it. I wanted the sticks to be the negative space with the color all around them because I thought it would be a more visible and dramatic change if the background color changes instead of the sticks because the sticks are pretty small. To create the first ink print I used blue ink. As you can see, even after many tries the first one I did was not my best. The ink was pretty thick and it was hard for me to get it in the crack of the linoleum. I used a brayer to roll the ink onto a sheet of metal until it made the velcro noise. Then I rolled it onto my stamp. At first I tried turning my stamp upside down and putting it directly on the piece of paper but that didn't give me the results I wanted so I tried putting the piece of paper on top of the stamp and pressing it on that way. That worked a lot better. For my next print, I wanted to try to do a rainbow colored one to symbolize that anyone can play lacrosse no matter who they are. I used blue, yellow, and red. I lined the ink up in the order I wanted and rolled it out so they over lapped and created a rainbow effect. Then I placed my sheet of paper on top and pressed it onto the stamp with a clean brayer. My thirst print is my extended print. I used black ink because I knew I wanted to put a yellow girls lacrosse ball on it. I wanted to keep it simple because I want to give it to my coach and I knew she likes simple things. My last print is the print on non-traditional surface. I knew I wanted to do a lacrosse picture but I couldn't find one that had enough space for my stamp without covering too much of it. Finally I decided on our team picture. I think I might give this one to my coach too. I like how it's in black and white and the stamp stands out with the royal blue. This project relates to my life because I've been playing lacrosse for 10 years and it's my favorite sport. I'm glad I got to incorporate it into this project.