Summary: Cleaning the wood in relief printmaking will make carving easier. Learn how to clean your wood block with expertise from a printmaker in this instructional printmaking video.
Francine Affourtit is a woodcut printmaker and has taught woodcut printmaking to children, adults and teachers for a number of years. Francine is new to Austin, TX, and can be reached...read more
"Now, that I've taken my proof, I decided to clean my block of wood so I get a little less little ink all over my hands. To do that, I'm just going to use a rag and vigorously wipe it down. Already, I'm pulling up a quite a bit of ink just by rubbing this rag onto my block of wood and it is resisting a bit because this ink is sticky. So, if I want to make the process a little bit smoothly, I can add some oil. Normally, I would use some baby oil. Today, I have some vitamin E oil that I'm just going to put a little bit on my rag. I don't want to over saturate my block of wood with oil. That is because as it absorbs oil, it's absorbing oil from the oil base ink that I'm using. It's absorbing oil from the oil that I'm using to clean it and if it absorbs to much oil, it will actually start to repel the ink which is definitely something I don't want to do. So, with that in mind using the rag to wipe off the ink is the best way to clean my block of wood."
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