Arts Factory 2023

As Extinction Rebellion grew meteorically we had an influx of great volunteers, including Bridget, she quickly became my number 2, and wrangled the other volunteers into order.

   From April 2019 we would have 'Blocking Stands' in every location, forming an intrinsic part of any occupation. These  are amazing for outreach, creating a welcoming environment, and inhabiting a space in a non-illegal welcoming family friendly way.

In 2020 we got an amazing warehouse space which became the 'Art Factory', top floor banner sewing, painting, block printing and screen printing. Ground floor storage, carpentry, trikes and sound and power.

Chris Smith is a key crew member, here he is on the ground floor.

The space provides a hub, and although there is a very high workload making banners provides great theraputic work for many different teams. This is the first floor which is devoted to making art, here is bridget in the centre, a selection of Elves, and Michael Collins of ‘‘PARIS 68 Redux’’ far left.

More of the panorama, this day a whole range of projects where in full swing.

Below that table live all these giant word printing blocks, we made them for printing ‘‘Human sized banners’’, the eye was made later for larger banners.

Bridget with her ability to juggle and organise meant she has been running the Art Factory, and often ‘‘Creative Circle’’ single handed, allowing me to do more ‘creative’ things and think about what the hell we should all be doing. One thing that I have done consitently is to design and make printing blocks, to support Bridget and the makers.

Here is the beautiful cutting table being used for ironing, with a keen Elf printing on the super flat floor.

I have never really been involved in making these large banners, Simon Palmer did many in the early days, and above are some of the killer techniques developed in the Arts Factory. They have sets of these ‘‘Positive Stencils’’ in a range of sides, made from recycled materials.

These SKull lino prints in fluro ink are about to have lettering hand painted over them.

Here is Bridget discussing details of the layering with an excellent Elf.

Sewing is a major job, every banner and flag needs some kind of edge seem or overlocking.

2023 and the there is much change in the Climate Movement, Extinction Rebellion works with many other more specialised groups, and the Arts Factory gives art support to all.

These banners for other groups where layed out using a projector.

This Banner is for ‘‘Ocean Rebellion’’, another briliant splinter group. Anthony Burrell did a beautiful job of the branding and font design, but this font is right bugger to paint. https://anthonyburrill.com/

I made this Mackerel block to support ‘‘Ocean Rebellion’’, a repeating fish is good ‘‘Bang for Buck’’. In the background we have ‘‘Bread and Roses’’ flags.

‘‘Bread and Roses’’ flag in progress

Also Rebels and Elves can print them selvesclothing , and here a pillow case. These Rose border and Corner blocks took forever.

Beautifully painted eye umbrellas, for an action which brought together many different groups.

I just made these ‘‘Peace Palestine’’ flags, using the Pigeon block made for the XXXX rebellion, and used in various Actions and events. I designed him to carry stuff but it has only been D-locks or hearts up to this point, the Olive branch was always and option, but here he is also carrying a Palestinian Key, symbolising the right to return.

XR ARTS FACTORY mandate / manifesto . . . w.i.p

• Do-It-Together

• support for actions, and then direct one-to-one, outreach, then other requests at our discretion. We are not a service, and we will only take on work that we and the Art Group deem to be appropriate.

• Outreach Outreach Outreach, and spreading through the country. This has been the Blockers greatest triumph. This work needs to be continued at the highest priority, as a tool to create a mass movement.

• making actions look beautiful and communication of our messaging and cultural values.

• the creation of fantastic photographs indirectly by the set dressing of actions (see above).

• creation of banners and flags as designed by the Art Group.

• making of patches which help us look cohesive and give us a sense of belonging.

• supporting "xr printworkshop" (Paris 68 Redux)

• the co-ordinators role is one of service; to facilitate the most productive and joyful work of the volunteers. 

• the Art Factories' primary role is making of assets that communicate top level messaging and designs, straight from the Art Group.

• the creation of the optimum work environment so that rebel volunteers can come and do meditative making in an atmosphere of constructive teamwork.

Essential factors involved in this are :

          * tell everybody everything

* provide tools, instruction and space for stress free work

* everybody cooks together and eats together 

          * the Anarchist Library / Anarchist Book Club - a revolutionary reading a day keeps the fascists away.

          * let the volunteers self organise, teach them autonomy, bearing in mind that some people want to be told what to do.

         * a peaceful working environment without stress and continual chatter, people need to be able to concentrate and get into what they are making.

• the Art Factory is not necessarily a creative space. The Art Group is in many ways a design group and the assets made in the factory should adhere to these designs with the most efficient and economical use of materials, making us technicians. The coords are therefor not necessarily in a creative role of dreaming up ideas and telling people what to do, but a resource on the best way to make things.

 • there are other channels being developed where anyone can propose the making of assets which could possibly be made by the factory, or improvements made in what we do, after being approved by the Art group or a similar group of experts, and budgetary factors.

• to provide a model for the Art Factories or Art Groups, for others to use as a starting point. We are not special, we want to stress our down-to-earth all working together utility, the opposite of an eliteist creative art group (obvs there are some contradictions here, which we can have fun clarifying).

• support other groups to set up art factories with advice, blocks, training etc... throughout the World, encouraging them to learn from us and make something better, and more appropriate for their place and time.

• the creation and distribution of digital and printed assets such as zines, making plain what we do and how we do it.  

• support other groups in using the London creative space, and making use of the equipment and special tools (giant woodblocks) that we have access to. 

• support the development of the Blockers into Repair Cafes, and then making of listening spaces where we can all share and educate each other. For the Repair Cafe we will team up with electronics fixers etc...  

!!! We can set up a group for dreaming up art-action projects, but this should be a seperate enterprise. I (Miles) see my role in the Art Group and my role as an artist as essentially seperate from my role in the Art Factory, although I see making tools-blocks and advising on how to make things as an Art Factory role.       

!!! Care should be taken when we talk about our work to remove our ego I keep seeing people who do good work making themselves look foolish as their egos grow out of control. For the creation of a better world we should try to be best practise, stay humble, humility, walk quietly, do the work.            

!!! Care should be taken with interviews and social media posts to remove the ego and stress the Do-It-Together.

The Most Important Art Assets !!!

WARNING I NEVER GOT THIS TO WORK ,,, we still do it the old way !!

Probably the most important art asset or visual prop has always been our standard “Extinction Symbol” flag, not only did ESP design the “Extinction Symbol”, but they designed the flag and its dimensions and stick length. Also ESP made the original block from which we probably printed 1000 flags. Years back they said to me about making a thing like this, and finally I made a prototype.

It is so simple, just pieces of wood and a set of old hinges, the bed is scrap pvc over a couple of layers of fabric. The advantages being no messing around with bits of newspaper, and the bed will get wet with the ink coming through the flag, so it will kinda get printed from both sides after the first print. The only tricksy thing is getting the hinges set at the right height.

We have only had a chance to test it but will be going into production very soon, I suspect it will not be faster and may be hard to use, but will give great results, obviously screenprinting is also great if that is your favourite.

WE HAVE YET TO GET THIS THING WORKING CORRECTLY YET, IT MAY JUST NOT EVER REALLY WORK ?

Australia, Melbourne 2019

We have made a Flag Making Zine and template files, available at fb page “ XR Art Blockers” , this is also a good way to get in touch, and for all of us to share what we do.

https://www.facebook.com/XR-Art-Blockers-427136854509618/

screen shot from flag making zine

screenshot from flagmaking zine

Off course getting the Fucking flags to come back has been a serious problem, sometimes we lose 30% per day !!! so in April 2019 buy day 3 we where robbed blind !!!!

Copied from XR-SouthAfrica we use stickers now which helps, and we are pretty persistent at chasing people down, THESE FLAGS NEED TO STAY ON THE FRONTLINE !!!

A pdf print template can be downloaded from the fb page “XR Volunteers” / files, and will soon be with other assets at Art Blockers. You have to be a member of XR Volunteers,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/228044261159153/files/

London 2019

Obviously what we call a “Roadblock Banner” is pretty important for blocking a road too. These are commercially printed, look great, water proof and substantial.

London, Parliment Square 2019

ANOTHER BRILLIANT PICTURE FROM THE PRESS, THANKS !!!

So as I see it, one of our goals in the Art Group or Art Factory, or Blockers or whoever we are ?? is the making of great images, the staging of great images, The “Set Dressing” if we set things up and make them look beautiful, make them tell stories, make scenes that Dramatise and tell the world about the predicament that we are all in , then hopefully the press will do the rest . . .

Delicious Ink ! ! !

For fast block printing at workshops we use Permaset SUPERCOVER, the black is super solid when block printed, the colours are more difficult since we are putting a way thinner layer of ink down than one would with screenprinting, but they work ! and they dry straight away.

Since we are a “Not For Profit” and a great customer we have negotiated a good deal from a supplier, so get in contact for deets.

Illustrated 4l and 1l tubs, we have not used the glow colours yet but they look great !!!, a 4l tub costs as much as 3 seperate litres btw.
Foreground is a 50mm foam roller, we get them FLINT HIRE AND SUPPLY,
2" foam roller - box (20) PBR2321. £11
2" roller frame. PBR2320 £1
I push the rollers of the frame and into a jam jar every night, no washing up and no wasting ink,
good luck out there x

We are currently buying and testing pigment that you mix with different binder bases, from other suppliers, way cheaper, with more faffing around !

Manifesto for an AUTONOUMOUS ANARCHIST ARTS FACTORY or HOLON - a work in progress by Ines Sorlat

1) WHAT IS THE SITUATION:

We have acknowledge that life as we know is going to be impossible to maintain.

What we optimistically predicted for our near future is not going to be so. Uncertain of what it will look like, science points out that unless things are changed we will face in a few decades devastating consequences:

Temperature will rise, implying crop failures and lack of water access to much more people than we could ever think.

This, first of all, will produce massive migration as we have never seen before, and what are the probabilities that the borders of all our “northern” countries (main polluters btw) will open to host the people of the most disadvantaged ones? … To put it differently: we won’t extinct peacefully.

Do you really think climate change will not affect you?

Not only the future will defer from our common vision, but it is about to become a nightmare.

Right now, unless a sum of radical changes impulse the whole structure of our society towards a different direction, its constant need of economic growth, consumerism, waste, inequality will take out most of the species, included ours into an unavoidable extinction.

Governments and Media are failing to provide climate justice, we are in this almost point of non-return where either we act now, either there will be no way to stop the possible damages of our lack of commitment to save the human existence (as we know it). Not only for future generations but.. also for ours.

This (and much more) is not the summary of an apocalyptic book, but scientific predictions, which say that the point of non-return is realistically 12 years from now.

2) What must be done

As a consequence, at this stage, art and culture needs to over take the role to:

1. create awareness,

2. demonstrate for the change.

3) Why art? and our vision of it.

Art enables us to play with the world as if this was an unlimited playground, it give us the option to play with the rules, to change them, to modify them and imagine solutions which our perception of reality/normality could sometimes limitate.

Art should be a direct driver of conversation, a space that provokes debate, that fosters change.

Art needs to use all its elements to strike the attention of our society towards a possible better future.

We want ART TO POINT OUT TO THE RIGHT ENEMY: CAPITALISM.

We want art to defeat advertisement, art to defeat the constant need to buy more.

We want art to stop being a commodity good for big investors to perpetuate their status.

We want art to be made by everyone, to be used as therapy agains our manipulative society. As a way of people to introspect, create self awareness, and to extend our thoughts in a philosophical way- Art can be made by all, we need to explore our own mean of productions, woodblock, carpentry, metal, digital, pencil, masks.

Art needs to be defiant and be in itself a means to revolt against our imposed society.

Art shall reconsider itself and explore new or old ways of production which work according to our values.

Art must support the open declaration of this Ecological Emergency.

4) What are our intentions:

We are hereby, declaring a CULTURAL REVOLUTION, and so we as artist and as humans we have the obligation to gather our skills, our means, our ideas and our work/powerforce to be the motor of change.

We have the responsibility to use imagination and creative skills to shape a new version of the world, to present the future as it is, to depict the truth of the present, to make people know the reality hidden behind this image and advertisement world, a consumers society, a non humanitarian financial monarchy.

We must draw, create and live the UTOPIA.

We, by playing with the rules of this world we can turn it upside down.

We can make it better.

FROM THE AAA HOLON we intend to motivate and be an example to follow by creating projects following out intentions.

- Body politics - As a direct response to the need of our times.

- Artvivism - As educational tool.

- Extinction Rebellion Arts Factory - as a tool to change the Political

AND MANY more to come.

We must do as much as we can to avoid disaster predicted, we must break with the establishment, and everyone should be able to join.

All the decisions of your day to day life should correspond to your thoughs, which can certainly change and evolve.

WE WANT ART THAT FIGHTS:

- Against capitalism,

- Explosion and imperialism,

- waste

- against people becoming unconscious advertisers of the system.

- inequality, race and sex discrimination.

- Money driven society

We propose:

- Freedom instead of the constant needs.

- Recycling, re-using, transforming

- Body to become the visible expression of our thoughts. None the ones imposed by the big companies.

- We proposed a society in which caring jobs are valuate and payed off,

- We proposed the companies to pay the damages of their unmoral use of resources, waste and pollution.

We want ART TO POINT OUT TO THE RIGHT ENEMY: CAPITALISM!!

WE WANT ART TO BE PART OF THE SOLUTION.

CONCLUSION and invitation to Join the revolution.

OUR ULTIMATE GOAL IS TO EXPLORE ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS TO THE NEOLIBERALISM SYSTEM. USING ART AS A WAY TO CREATE AWARENESS AND EXPLORE POSIBLE SOLUTIONS.

WE ARE ABOUT TO UNDERTAKE A CULTURAL REVOLUTION,

and art must comply with the obligation te become the motor for change.

With this manifesto we invite you all to do the best to avoid this,

Because YES, it will affect YOU and YES we still have a bit of time to ACT.

Therefore, we invite you to explore, shape, transform, rebel, destroy through ART…

Revolutionary Library

Doing the BODYPOLITIC workshops we would always have a library with us, sometimes we would read to people as they sewed, I would print off articles and bind them . . .

Clare read Audrey Lourde through a megaphone during a workshop picket . . .

Im too tired to write, but I wanted to start . . .

“To Our Friends” the invisible commitee

“Neither Lord Nor Subject” Bao Jingyan 300BCE [self printed]

“Exiting the Vampires Castle” Mark Fisher [self printed]

“No is not enough” Naomi Klein

“Feminist Theory from margin to centre” Bell Hooks

“Your silence will not protect you” Audrey Lourde

“Advertising Shits in your head”

“Hope in the Dark” rebecca Solnit

“On Anarchism” Noam Chomsky

“Deep Adaptation” Jem Bendall [self printed]

“A Rough Guide To Reality” anonymous [self printed]

ADDITIONAL BLOCK PRINTING ADVICE - for facilitators

Ink Coverage: Okay the black is great !!! but with the brights over darks its never gonna be that solid looking, so warn the punters !! Over a similar tone or lighter the colours ZING !!!

And the colours also feel way more plasticky than the black, like they just wanna dry straight up ! And it feels harder to get off when dry !

I feel that people tend to under ink the blocks, you can put loads on and it can look all gloopy and textured, but it takes that much ink for a solid image.

I have included a drying retarder in the order list going out to the REBEL REBEL stage, use 3-5% which I reckon will make things easier ? but you will have to use your judgement.

Alternatively you could add a little water, if I do not want something to dry out then I leave a damp cloth over it . . you need to keep experimenting to get the best results in the conditions.

STOP CLEAN, REST THEN START AGAIN !!!!

During the Rebellion the teams seemed intent on working all day without stopping and cleaning the blocks, if you go this route the blocks become horribly caked in ink, quality drops, and you get exhausted. I think 3 hrs and then stop, clean, rest, start again. Do not underestimate how tiring it is facilitating these workshops, and the blocks get way harder to clean the longer the ink is on there !!!

When cleaning I use a soak, scrape, soak, dig with chopstick, soak, scrub , repeat etc...technique.

So that the soaking minimises the work, and minimises the scrubbing erosion that they get. 

Obviously dry blocks fully before putting away and pack them so that they don't smash each other up, Tetris style, in a case box , please no chucking them in a bag.

You have been using the standard colours, they also make a GLOW colour range, they are stunningly expensive !!!! but this is up to you if you wanna go this route, also we have not used green yet, Clive says that green text does not read so well, I trust him. I am just cutting some blocks of the inverted CND symbol, as used by Polly Higgins, it's the rune ALGIZ, life, beginning, protection. I feel some MAKE ECOCIDE LAW blocks coming,

            good luck out there

permaset heat curing instructions are below

https://www.permaset.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/1406-permaset-heat-curing-tech-data-june-14.pdf

BLOCK PRINT INSTRUCTIONS - for first timers

1. Find a totally smooth surface, using a wooden board, lay down approx three layers of soft fabric to make a bed, then a sheet of newspaper to protect the fabric

2. Put your t-shirt (or whatever) down with a piece of newspaper inside so that the ink doesn’t bleed through to the other side

4. Ever so gently use the roller to put ink on the block - don’t press down!

You kiss the surface of the block with the roller,

Only use the weight of the roller or less !!!,

If you push the soft roller it deforms and puts ink where we don’t want it !! we want loads of ink on it, but only on the printing surface, we don't mind it being all textured, look at the light glinting on the ink to see if it is even

5. Place the block face down on your t-shirt so the inked side is against the fabric

6. Press it down by standing, just for a second or two

7. Hold down the fabric and carefully remove the block

8. Hang your t-shirt to dry, 10 -30 mins depending on conditions

9. Re-ink the block for the next print

10. To make the ink wash resistant it needs to be ironed super hot for three mins or at lower temperature for longer (on delicates), other methods like a hot air gun are good too

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

Clare spoke and she said, “We want a printing station at five Rebellious locations across London all printing upon the Beautiful REBELS while the police attempt to repel us !!!! ”

Fucksake Clare !!!

Anyway we had a bunch of sets of symbols and words cnc’d out of 18mm birch ply to a depth of 5mm, We had some made by Makerversity in Somerset House - thanks a lot guys !!! , and some by CNC PROJECTS in Leyton, London.

These where cut with a 3mm router bit which meant we had to cut out some of the corners to make them nice and sharp !!! I reckoned this was way less work than sticking laser cut pieces onto wooden blocks, an image from the source file is below, and you can download the BLOCK_Library_cutting_list_V4.pdf from the fb page XR Volunteers, in the files section. If you only have access to a 4mm router then it is not much more work but the smaller words are not possible.

Here is a block in post Rebellion condition, and the one behind has been painted in oil based primer, then undercoat and gloss. I find this paint on the street, so its free.

In the meantime Chris Smith had started 3D printing blocks from my picture woodcuts. These are great, he had to simplfy the images and then create vectors which are now in the above pdf, the objects look kinda weird and ugly but print really well and are stronger than the birch ply.

The Block in the middle in unmounted, I am Gorilla gluing them onto plu and then cutting away the wood to make them easier for the inexperienced user, then painting to protect the wood.

Chris uses a Prusa i3 MK2 3D Printer. Hes and engineer and says its not straightfoward. Chris made 5 sets of 5 images and the logo and I managed to mount some on pieces of wood in time for the Rebellion, without Chris autonomously doing all this we would have had no pretty pictures on the printing stations.

Looks like he has changed colour halfway through.

Blocks almost ready to go out into the world again, we sand the top surface to make it nice and flat and matt.

Katie Wallis had laser cut some blocks from mdf, and these where used at Oxford Circus, words EMPATHY, HUMILITY and FRUGALITY, they where great but the mdf is damaged by water. Louise Riley made all these wooden hearts that I distributed to the other sites.

On Waterloo bridge Louise Riley supplemented her standard issue kit with her hand made unique blocks, including lots of natural imagery loved by little children and adults alike.

Also on Waterloo bridge Val Saunders was printing beautiful silhouettes of insects amongst other imagery.

We printed lots of patches, as did Simon Tozer and team in Bristol, including the new designs talking of HUMILITY, EMPATHY and FRUGALITY, and Hearts, more about who we are, and our priorities.

the bathroom makes great drying space

We printed a lot of Bee flags, and a rack for them to dry on

In the run up we printed some legal Observer HiVis, it saves money and has a good hand made aesthetic

We wanted some new elemenent so we used the blocks I’ve made for use on the human body to make up 4 quadrants, on the “Intersectional Quadrant flags”, I like the idea of 4 ideas meeting, this is just the start , think we need a flag that says [Cimate Justice / Bio Diversity] , all in a one, with no words etc…. there is a lot in heraldry that can be creatively utilised.

some quadrants drying

a highly skilled Companero joining quadrants

I made giant Butterfly block for use on flags and banners, a small block scaled works really well because its not too detailed, and its so rewarding and fast to print, the block is 75cm across, we also made big heart flags with swallows in the corner, the swallow I made for CULTURE DECLARES

after all the flag printing and emailing patch cutting painting siome human sized banners was a joy, especially the change is coming ones, then would whack a big butterfly on them

Flavia made this amazing flag, surely this is the way ahead ? ? ?

Here are the 5 boxes almost ready to go, I was probably crying at this point

Each box had

printing set: word and image blocks, perspex sheets, rollers, spatulas, flat wooden boards, soft cloth padding, newspaper, black ink and a colour.

Human sized Banners: including at least one CHANGE IS COMING, HUMILITY EMPATHY FRUGALITY. NON VIOLENT

Patches, safety pins

Lots of detail about Woodblock / LinoBlock Printing

I made this Jerkin for doing workshops, its made from an old sofa, the images on the front are done painting and then print with oil based ink , and then more hand painting, its just here coz its a pretty picture.

Okay so generally I have been using Flooring Lino, made by Forbo Linoleum. In the BODYPOLITIC workshops we use these foam rollers (see below) which deform when used inexpertly, so I cut deep into the wood of the blocks so that they are easier for the first timer to use for printing. This means that the art lino has no advantage for me, and I find it too fragile.

I always glue the lino to18mm ply off cuts which I scavenge, recently been using this water based flooring adhesive, I use plenty and then put it under immense weights for 24 hrs. This adhesive in not completely waterproof. One friend prefers contact adhesive (like evostik), another uses Waterproof PVA. The pva could be less annoying with tha stringy backing all making and annoying mess as you cut it away ??

Currently my favourite by far is using contact adhesive !!! so not the one illustrated !!!

Recently I got a whole load of off cuts of birch ply from a joiner and now I cut straight into these for the writing blocks, its harder to do so I follow the japanese method of "Principle Knife" first etc..

For picture blocks I will always be using lino, I basically draw-paint with my Molotow markers, and get the image really good before cutting. The eye is done with a japanese material available from printmaking shops, its harder to cut but virtually indestructible.

When I started the workshop practise of using Permaset Supercover I always thought that I could only get quite crude results, but recently I've changed my mind, with sensitivity to the materials amazing results can be achieved using this ink, even with details like in this skull.

NEW IMAGES TO COME

I’ve cut a bunch of these now, in illustrator I find the centre of the symbol and mark it with a red dot or cross, then print out, so I use a variety of compasses to try to mark out or cut the circular shapes, then cut through the paper to mark the other parts, I tend to use a Stanley knife and safety ruler quite a bit for this sort of thing.The one at the back is laser cut as a test, it worked out well.

I'm a fan of these Japanese semi-pro tools, this is a 7 pack from Tyzack Tools on Kingsland rd, London. Their ebay shop is cw_tyzack , this kit is £48.48. The advantage of this is that it encourages you to study japanese woodcutting and it makes you use tools that you would not buy by choice. The disadvantage compared to the swiss is that they cut less deep.

Swiss Pfeil Woodcutting tools, these are sweet, but at £17-£18 each it adds up !!!! I got mine from Jacksons art supplies, if you can only afford a few get the larger ones such as the 4mm V tool.

Because of carving all these letters which is kinda industrial I got these Larger wood carving tools from Axminster tools, by Kirchen, because they are larger you can use one hand as a brake. I am using the hook bladed carving knife a lot since it is so easy to sharpen, and its all about sharpness.

Pretty soon your tools become dull and harder to use, then really hard work and progressively more dangerous, you just have to get into sharpening and honing or give up. There are all different ways of doing it, diamond , water or oil stones,I am happy with oil stones, I tried using soapy water on them but it did’nt feel right.

At the top diamond stone, way too course for these delicate little tools. The one in the middle is a combination stone, standard issue, when you get into it its great !!! I like this stone a lot.

On the right the white stone is ‘Hard Arkansas’, natural stone, and even better, from Cooksonsgold jewellery tool suppliers, code 999 AJB £70, maybe 4000 grit ?? They do a shorter one thats £30.

underneath it is a piece of shoe leather with a course rouge which I use for honing (polishing-repairing) the cutting edges, I tend to use the rouge on a piece of wood more, the leather feels like it make sense on a knife, but for such a precise little cutting edges I like the idea of it being polished on a harder more accurate surface.

Bottom left ‘Flexcut SlipStrop’ , its just a fucking piece of wood with 2 thin bits of leather stuck on it, but its really good, the yellow crayon is the abrasive compound.

The little stones at the bottom are for sharpening the inside of your V or U tools, these are made by Pfeil.

Yeah its a whole world of detail, but I feel people are really out of touch with these traditional skills, I hone my Stanley knife blades, and I sharpen scalpels as well as the kitchen knives.

This picture is using a frame to hold a woodblock, its a bit of half inch ply with scrap wood glued around the outside, then I use blocks and wedges to hold it tight so that I can concentrate on cutting fast, and safely.

On the left 'trammel heads', attach them to a piece of wood and draw perfect circles any size, here I was using a sharpened bolt to score the wood, on the right is a tool for scoring plasterboard, this is quite good too, I have attached a knife blade to this now . . . .

Inks left to right, then foreground.

Permaset SuperCover, this is a screen printing ink but super dense, its designed to go dark over light or light over dark. I don't buy these tiny 300ml pots its way too expensive, I get 1 litre or 4 litre tubs from Steve Wood Screen Printing supplies. You can also get it from Pyramid Screen Products. This is what we have been using at all the workshops, what we printed all the HiVis with. it dries in about 20-30 mins depending on conditions. But you do not use a traditional rubber roller, you use a foam one, so the technique is different. This is water based. The Black is great but the colours are more plasticky and you don't get a flat colour when you relief print with it. Lots of people don't mind a distressed look though.

Gamblin Relief Ink Textile Black. its amazing but its an oily terror and can take ages to dry, pretty cost effective and apparantly lasts for infinite washes. Clean up is a horror. They only make black.

Cranfield Caligo Safe Wash relief ink. This stuff is pretty great ,its oils based and super dense and can be cleaned up with water, great range of colours , I think it takes 2-7 days to dry ? some times these oil based ones do weird things, I will never again use them when time critical.

Speedball Fabric relief ink, The most expensive, dries around 24 hrs, even easier to clean up than the Caligo safewash.

The Next stage will be making up my own ink from binder and pigment and retarder.

this is a picture of all the rollers that I hardly use, the foreground one is a foam one that I used with the supercover but now unavailable.

NEW PHOTO OF FLINTS ROLLER AND GIANT TUBS OF INK

Now we get these from FLINT Hire and Supply:

2" foam roller - box (20)  PBR2321.  £11

2" roller frame.     PBR2320                £1

I push the rollers of the frame and into a jam jar every night, so no wasting ink by washing up !!!

Just a pretty picture.

This is my set of 48mm letterpress, German, sweet. I printed the first four HiVis with this, then made the first woodblocks by copying it . . . I gave Clive Russell prints from this which became the FUXED font.

DEFACE , DECLARE , REBEL

Okay so defacing the coin of the realm has a great tradition, the suffragettes did it, so we should do it.

Firstly I make the coin nice and clean, sometimes I soak in white vinegar, polishing with silver polish is really good.

Then I sketch out the proportions of the EXTINCTION Symbol with a pen. Then place the coin on my anvil or another piece of solid steel, and use my cold chisel and a hammer to cut into the metal. If you use a block of wood or a bouncy surface you will find it way harder.

Previously I sharpened it up on a grinding wheel. Cold chisels are for cutting metal (when cold - hence the name) or stone etc.. not to be confused with wood workers chisel for cutting wood.

Then I use a centre punch to mark where the hole it to go and drill it out going as slow as possible with as much coolant-lubricant as possible. When drilling metal (or even wood) you really do not want your drill bits getting hot, they will lose their temper and then sharpness. I have bought a couple of hand crank pillar drills for this purpose. From doing workshops with electric and hand crank sewing machines we way prefer hand powered, so much better for learning and way less dangerous and noisy.

Then I put matt Humbrol enamel model paint into the cuts, to make maximum contrast with the polished surface. The ring illustrated above is from S&K fittings aka S&K CAMDEN, they where 8p each, way too much. there you go, please start a craze of Rebellious Jewellery making !!!

Hail Autonomous Relief Printers of the Rebellion !!!

I'm writing to encourage you to GO FOR IT with your Relief / Lino / Woodblock printing .

I've made up a file if you want to make your own versions of my original lino blocks. It's available on "XR Volunteers" in the files section, BLOCK_Library_cutting_list_V1.pdf

The PDF is all to scale, the size of the objects suited to human form, the art board is 1220mm wide by 2440mm.

Off course you can do whatever you want , you've got the font !! You can draw or copy a photo, I use photos a lot as reference.

Another part of the file is tailored towards making up blocks by having one or two layers of thin ply lazercut and then glued onto wooden blocks. I did a few like that as a test, but I really like cutting them by hand. With each block I cut I become faster and learn stuff, and it's meditative.

Another option is to have blocks CNC cut, this is using a computer controlled router and should be perfect for these clean geometric shapes. So if you know anyone with access then off you go !!!

We are planning to get some sets made, but I have no idea how many or how long it will take. Rather than wait I would encourage you to get stuck in. I am sure you can find an expert in your area to help. Also I now try to print a colour for dark fabric and one for light so having duplicates is really nice.

But the whole thing of printing on peoples existing clothing at an action , in the middle of the road, like the ROADBLOCK PARTY in Dalston, is awesome and since they get such a choice of words and images they get involved on a creative process and can tell a little story on their Rebellious bodies .... it's fucking great ... they love it, for us it's totally exhausting but also great.

Listening to a Rogers lecture at King's has made me realise just how transformational that act could be !

If you wanna make your own version of the skull or other images they will all be available in another post soonish . . .

In the foreground I am making up at 62mm WE'RE . BEYOND . FUCKED

After watching Rogers talk at Amnesty I'm all over BEYOND FUCKED, but the rest of the Art group want WE'RE FUCKED since it shows that we're all gonna get fucked together !!!!

I am carving them all together in process way, and will separate them soon. I'm following the Japanese method of using "Principle Knife" to delineate the shapes, holding it Japanese style, then gouging out the access, then using a flat to finish it off. This is what happens when you buy a set of Japanese tools

I am carving them all together in process way, and will separate them soon. I'm following the Japanese method of using "Principle Knife" to delineate the shapes, holding it Japanese style, then gouging out the access, then using a flat to finish it off. This is what happens when you buy a set of Japanese tools

All designs and images are copyrighted and cannot be for commercial use, but they are free for non-commercial use.

The pretty pictures where made by Louise Riley there she is holding that giant woodblock, thats the only one I did not make . . . . . . .

SCREEN PRINTING REBELS LETS GO !!!

Decentralize, You are Autonomous and Independant !!!!

we are just gearing up to enter FACTORY mode, we have designed some new patches which have amazing imagery from our woodcuts. Since many of the new ones have no EXTINCTION SYMBOL you can accept voluntary donations, which means you can support the flag making and the making of the patches which have the SYMBOL on them.

Off course we will be printing some of the patches from the REBELLION DAY - 5 Bridges, all with the SYMBOL.
The .pdf s are available from XR Volunteers page - the files section , they are all totally editable so can use them to make up whatever you want. GO GO GO !!!!

Off course this brings up the whole money thing which we have been avoiding, we are something different, but we are totally fucking skint !!!! So lest have these as a gift and you can make a voluntary donation if there is no SYMBOL involved, is that okay ? , I think it has to be at the moment . . .

XR_Patches_V1.pdf // we used this pdf to make the screen for the patches on the "Declaration of Rebellion Day" - 31 October 2018

XR_Patches_V2.pdf // these ones we made for "Rebellion Day" - 17 November 2018

XR_Patches_V3.pdf // we will have these at the "SPRING UPRISING" 16-17 March 2019
and the "INTERNATIONAL REBELLION" 15 April to INFINITY

#BODYPOLITIC MANIFESTO X

• EVERYTHING WE CREATE EMPOWERS US

• DESTROY CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND TRANSFORM THEM INTO YOUR OWN MESSAGES

• EMBODY POSITIVE REBELLION

• WEAR YOUR HEART ON YOUR SLEEVE

• START CONVERSATIONS

• RECLAIM THE CULTURAL POWER OF CLOTHING

• TEACH EACH OTHER SKILLS

• MAKE IT YOURSELF

• READ A GROWING LIBRARY

• BIND YOUR OWN BOOKS

• WRITE YOUR OWN NEWS

• MOTTAINAI

Aims of a #BODYPOLITIC workshop . . . . .

We are here to encourage you to express yourselves using your clothing and body as a space for political/spiritual expression (rather than a space for capitalist advertising). Everyday is a day to demonstrate OR show your positivity and desire for a better world!

We try to be Pro-Pro and Anti-Anti, only making positive statements, of course you can do what you want (within reason).

Every new piece of clothing has an environmental impact, so we reuse and re-purpose. When you remake a piece of clothing you truly inhabit it, far more empowering and important than a purchase of a generic commodity. With each embellishment and repair garments become improved and more loved.

The jackets that we work on ourselves, you can see some here, evolve over the months, as ideas expand and branch.

Both of us are passionate about politics and the environment, we talk and study, this drives and informs this project.

Currently we are both working on EXTINCTION REBELLION so this workshop is focussed on that urgent project, but we want you to get the bigger picture that spawned our work on that project.

It is our belief that the transformation of society necessary for us to survive gives us the opportunity to transform the world to one of equality for all, a decolonised future based on climate justice for all, not only humans, all life needs space and resources to survive and thrive.

The Intersection of Species Extinction, Institutional Racism, Class Division, Unequal Distribution of Wealth, Rampant Consumerism, Climate Breakdown, Broken Democracy, Neo Liberalism, The War Machine, we have to fix the whole fucking shit show now, to have a chance.

We are also both very interested in the revolutionary ideas being put into practise in Rojava, with the liberation of women at the fore front of everything. They are developing new forms of participatory democracy.

As well as clothing we have made many flags and banners, since it seems we shall be demonstrating for some time to come . . . . some are on show here to inspire you.

We would love you to write or draw something new and personal.

1. PAINTING AND DRAWING is the fastest most direct means of expression, some of these paints are good to go , others need a medium mixed in so check with us for deets, all types need to be heat treated to be washproof !!! , we have stencils if you require, I have used stencils a lot in painting jackets, its a great way to get it right first.

2. CLOTH TAPE We have cloth tape which is super bright and clear looking, but needs machine sewing around all the edges to make it permanent, this is a really time consuming job !!!!! we have machines for experienced users. Clothing with cloth tape can be washed cold ?? we believe.

3. PATCHES We have patches that are designed and printed by us, you can each have one !! ,

and after it is sewn if you want another it has to be by donation because they take a huge amount of time and materials to make, and we do not have time to make many more,

And we are here to encourage you to do this stuff, each statement and image get thought and wrestled over . . .

Patches can be held by pins or masking tape while hand sewing, Clare loves to stick them down with cloth tape, but that means lots of sewing later !!!!

4. APPLIQUE As well as some clothing that you can have we also have scrap fabric for applique or other more radical uses, we would love to help you make something crazy.

5. HAND SEWING Here are hand sewing kits, its so good because the tension of the thread is really organics and perfect. We do have a sewing machine for experienced users, but we do not have time to train you /maintain the machine, its a great skill to learn, sewing machines revolutionised the world, get the skills !!!!

6. RELIEF PRINTING Recently we have been relief printing to make patches and text, this is something you can do easily and I can tell you how !!!! using letter Press letters or making lino-wood cuts

7. FLAGS AND VAGINAS we have made a bunch of flags designed to be Universal so that we can use them at any demonstration, we will make more and can guide and advise

8. PRINT AN ARTICLE I love reading on paper then I can show/lend to friends and discuss about it, I bind them using this Japanese stab binding technique.

9. MAKE A ZINE / PAMPHLETS The time of the English civil war pamphlets where the means of communication, many political, the zine is the contemporary equivalent. Like the above, phones away, look at this !!!

BANNER AND UMBRELLA PAINTING. 5/5

1.FROM LABORATORY TO FACTORY AND INTO THE UNKNOWN.

2. PRINTING ON CLOTHES AND HiVis.

3. PRINTING FLAGS.

4. PRINTING PATCHES.

5. BANNER AND UMBRELLA PAINTING.

JUST IN CASE YOU HAVE SOME DOUBT ABOUT THE OVERALL PLAN !!

If you are gonna paint more than one of a thing then it’s worth making a bunch of stencils

I set everything up really well for the other team members, it made it easy and fun, here Zulkkar is using a “Molotow” paint markerto do the edges, while Doug fills in with a brush. This gave very sharp results but is overkill really, but these refillable markers are brilliant !!

We made stencils for these, but the Symbol was drawn with string for the circle, and then using the geometry of the umbrella, we used acrylic paint, it did’nt stick great in the rain storm, but it was okay.

A ghost image left on some wood . . .

SUPPLIES

https://www.jacksonsart.com/brands/molotow/molotow-one4all-acrylic-markers

https://www.molotow.com/en/product-series/marker-refills/

PRINTING PATCHES. 4/5

1.FROM LABORATORY TO FACTORY AND INTO THE UNKNOWN.

2. PRINTING ON CLOTHES AND HiVis.

3. PRINTING FLAGS.

4. PRINTING PATCHES.

5. BANNER AND UMBRELLA PAINTING.

There came a time when we realised that we where not in a strange death cult, and that this thing was taking off, I decided we should make a lot of patches, so I took the great designs from the graphics and branding team, mixed them up with some other stuff and got to work

The design work is done in adobe Illustrator, this program uses vectors for perfect sharpness. You can find version 1 and 2 in the files section of "XR Volunteers". V1 needs some rearranging I think , V3 will definitely have  "CONSCIENTIOUS PROTECTOR" in there somewhere.

I often do then design work for wood blocks in Illustrator also, but it gives me deep pleasure to avoid the computer and do it all by hand.

This is an image of the version 2 design, taking our core messages and spreading them around as much as possible. After the first event I felt that these big patches where the most effective, Symbol and message together.

My friend is a master printer so I send him the files and he prints me a positive on transparent film and then exposes my screen with this. You can get this done at any community or artist run print studio.

I got him to paint the emulsion right up to the edges because we have a lot to do and I don't want the ink bleeding through.Then I taped it top and bottom with parcel tape, I used the stickiest one I could find.

For cutting up the rolls of fabric I borrowed this machine, I had marked out my cutting table with the correct dimensions and then layered up one colour over the other, 5 colours and then cut them 5 at a time, it was really hard work.

I just used these Speedball hinges, visible in the picture below, they are great, but generally I'm suspicious of the rest of the stuff that they make. Then on the table I'm using this pieces of soft neoprene because it was lying around, I could have used multiple layers of fabric instead.

In this image we can see brown tape has been used to stop up leaks.

For patches I like using cotton drill fabric, all the stuff I got has a twill weave on one side and a plain weave on the other. The twill side has diagonal ridges so does not print as well.

For me it's all about using the right colours, in this second run we used purple, green and bright blue from Manchester and Orange and Magenta from North London, North London has a good bright blue too, but the fabric is lighter in weight, as well as cheaper.

Then off we go, we found this to be a 3 person job, the screenprinting is so fast that the bottleneck is hanging them up or finding other places for drying. There are lots of tutorials on screen printing so I won't go into details, but I like loads of ink on the screen and I'm a pusher, then a little lift and flood the screen.

The shops ran out of Black so I bought Purple and Ultramarine, both looked great.

Sheets of patches from the first run, the fabric colours where not so good as the second batch,  and the designs are a bit fiddly, but we did great !

I did the heat curing in the local laundrette tumble drier for 30 mins, they come out crumpled but we iron one quick then another on the pile, and they heat and squash each other real quick !!! It's pretty satisfying !!   Link below for other heat curing methods.

It would appear that some of our sheets of patches have travelled far . .

SUPPLIES

North London Fabric Supplier for “Plain Cotton Drill”

https://wholesalefabrics.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=4615

Manchester Fabric Supplier for “Cotton Drill Twill”

https://www.iwantfabric.com/plain-100-cotton-drill-twill-fabric.html

I got screens from https://www.handprinted.co.uk/

 And Intaglio https://intaglioprintmaker.com/

If anyone finds any better suppliers then please drop me a line.

PRINTING FLAGS. 3/5

1.FROM LABORATORY TO FACTORY AND INTO THE UNKNOWN.

2. PRINTING ON CLOTHES AND HiVis.

3. PRINTING FLAGS.

4. PRINTING PATCHES.

5. BANNER AND UMBRELLA PAINTING.

So most fabric comes in 1.5 meter wide rolls, if you split it then 0.75 M wide, hence making a block 48 cm diameter makes sense. My friend made this block,  It's a brilliant thing,  it's cut from real plywood so it has a grain which is really nice. To make one I would cut the symbol from 6-12mm ply and then laminate it to something thicker at least 18mm maybe more.

The printing process is same as the HiVis but we used standard permaset, no Supercover,  and less ink  because the fabric is so thin, it kinda mostly prints through, which is great because a flag is seen from both sides. Since ink is coming through then you will need lots of newspaper !!

The Fabric is translucent , described as “Polyester lining cloth - plain weave lightweight - not satin”. It is the lightest fabric in the world, it flutters in virtually no breeze, most flags hang down !

Flat 18mm plywood, then about 3-4 layers of fabric, then a couple of layers of newspaper ( in this picture we also use a layer of slightly foam like plastic which is not necessary). But you have to experiment to see what works best for you.

Here the flag is being held out flat by 2 “Autonomous-Anarchist-Volunteers”, meanwhile a third has inked up the block, and down it goes !

then delicately hop on top and kinda work your way around with your feet ? a little Rebellious Printer dance.

Two hold the flag down as number three pulls straight up.

You can see how its come through a bit onto the newspaper, that will have to go, look at that smile !

Soon hanging them up and space becomes the bottleneck.

Felix just loves to do the rebellious ironing while dancing to Apex Twin.

With the HiVis and patches we used the launderette opposite my house and gave everything 30 mins in the tumble dryer, I did’nt test,  maybe 15 mins would have been okay ??? anyway with the flags we just gave them a quick iron since synthetic fabrics are very temperature sensitive.

Since we are not using a press having a decent amount of weight really helps get a good print, with light people having two of them at the same time really helps, and they all shuffle around in a circle..

What I am failing to mention is how much fun we had, once there where enough of us, and I could relax and go Okay, lets get this Anarchist Utopia started !!

The factory existed in my house, and I was the most experienced at the techniques but when I passed over control to EVERYONE, it all flowed in a wonderful self organising heaven, with lots of houmous and Aphex Twin.

SUPPLIES AND TECHNICAL ADVICE

The Fabric is translucent , described as “Polyester lining cloth - plain weave lightweight - not satin” , it was found sourced by the busiest person in XR, I will try and get her to find a web link.

We did try and screen print flags also, but it did not go so well, our screen was too course, so too much ink came through, but it should be possible.

PRINTING ON CLOTHES AND HiVis. 2/5

1.FROM LABORATORY TO FACTORY AND INTO THE UNKNOWN.

2. PRINTING ON CLOTHES AND HiVis.

3. PRINTING FLAGS.

4. PRINTING PATCHES.

5. BANNER AND UMBRELLA PAINTING.

So the process evolved , I don’t think one would do things this way in a logical manner, but it works really well, especially doing workshops with humans, they love it !!!! if we keep things simple and we love a punk aesthetic then nothing can go wrong.

Clare Farrell is an expert in sustainable fashion (if sustainable fashion is possible ?), so we used her contacts , I got this 40 kilo bale of HiVis destined for export for £20-£25, it had loads of stuff that I dont know what to do with but about 80 vests and some other fun stuff.

On fabric the only ink I have found that dries in less than a few days is to use screen printing water based ink, it dries in around 15 mins, so great for mass production and workshops.

This is not relief printing ink, it's way less dense, it needs to be applied with with a foam roller, so you will not get the high quality possible using oil based inks. For the workshops I only use simple blocks, so the ink governs the level of detail, so most of the writing is 48mm high, the smallest letters I use are 18mm high, we like a simple handmade punk aesthetic, I really like them printed with tons of ink on so they are like dark marks.

I really like this permaset ink, since the HiVis is so bright I use use a mix of half standard (£10 for 300ml) and half supercover (£20 for 300ml). The supercover has way more pigment but is is a bit dry, the standard is slightly transparent.

On fabric the only ink I have found that dries in less than a few days is to use screen printing water based ink, it dries in around 15 mins, so great for mass production and workshops.

This is not relief printing ink, it's way less dense, it needs to be applied with with a foam roller, so you will not get the high quality possible using oil based inks. For the workshops I only use simple blocks, so the ink governs the level of detail, so most of the writing is 48mm high, the smallest letters I use are 18mm high, we like a simple handmade punk aesthetic, I really like them printed with tons of ink on so they are like dark marks.

I really like this permaset ink, since the HiVis is so bright I use use a mix of half standard (£10 for 300ml) and half supercover (£20 for 300ml). The supercover has way more pigment but is is a bit dry, the standard is slightly transparent.

I love the imperfections in the printing.

I just made this and I love it, I found this t-shirt being used as a rag by some screen printers and I rescued it . . .

I just made this and I love it, I found this t-shirt being used as a rag by some screen printers and I rescued it . . .

I just made this and I love it, I found this t-shirt being used as a rag by some screen printers and I rescued it . . .

maybe a circle and super strong graphic of “ShockFace”.

Woodcuts make strong graphic images, these have been picked up by our graphics department, and used in many areas.

If you are not happy with cutting wood blocks you could use a lazer cutter, I have done these as a test and because they are way small and fiddly . . . in Adobe Illustrator I added in bits of spru which I willl cut out after I have glued these thin 3mm pieces into 18mm ply

But I way prefer doing it by hand, Hand and Eye, you get faster and learn more . .

SUPPLIES

Bale of HiVis from http://www.chriscareyscollections.co.uk In south east London.

www.permaset.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/1406-permaset-heat-curing-tech-data-june-14.pdf

FROM LABORATORY TO XR-FACTORY AND INTO THE UNKNOWN. 1/5

1.FROM LABORATORY TO FACTORY AND INTO THE UNKNOWN.

2. PRINTING ON CLOTHES AND HiVis.

3. PRINTING FLAGS.

4. PRINTING PATCHES.

5. BANNER AND UMBRELLA PAINTING.

So some background, myself and my colleague Clare Farrell have been working on a project #BODYPOLITIC for some time, to transform our bodies into a space for political/spiritual expression. We run workshops to get all the other humans to do the same, and we decorate or make our own pieces also, always using existing garments from clothing recyclers, an anti-capitalist project.

Here is a happy human who sewed one of her patches onto her top, we got really into making these patches with universal positive statements, this led into me woodcutting text and images, but always to go on the human form. We tend to quite a bit of sewing machine training, it’s really worth getting into it, fix anything, make anything you want. Second hand metal bodied domestic sewing machines are cheap.

Maybe we made too many patches ? before we started screen printing we had a few of these sheets made by sublimation print, later we made screen prints using our favourites,

We are really into using this progaff cloth tape, you can write on clothing really fast, and it is less prescribed than a patch . .

then if you sew around the edges it becomes permanent,  you can write fast and dirty or get real precise.

Nice punk aesthetic.

this example is a prisoners uniform jacket that I remade to fit my slender form, all the writing is tape that I sewed around, it is a great way to make banners also, applique made easy. I get the ProGaff from GaffaTape.com, we always use this highest quality one.

We are also into making flags and other demonstration objects, this is an “Intersectional Anarchy flag”  in progress, I used a 1930’s Singer hand crank to make this, sweet.  

I had realised how desperate our plight on the earth was before Roger Hallam told us about his ultimate project, and out came a gutteral response.

I spent a weekend doing pencil drawings of animal skulls, then human, then I did this from the drawings, I do a lot of preparation before making a wood cut, and I mean a lot !!! . . . . I think later woodcuts are too detailed, I was thinking about Human and Anmimal Extinction a lot at this time, so this is bad death, Annihilation.

Clare had already made outfits for the “Stop Killing Londoners” project and we have always talked about how the Revolution/Rebellion should look totally fantastic. Putting activists in prison outfits made amazing photographs, and so on one level we are creating photographs - images that will go around the globe,

An enemy of the state, , , , going to prison is a serious business.

This is a picture from way later but it shows using letterpress letters to print on fabric which is how some of this began, with wood blocks of the “Extinction Symbol” and a skull.

These Letterpress letters are 48mm high, German originally,  I also got the lowercase at the same time, it’s really good fun. They came from ebay, from a dealer.

It became apparent that letterpress was too unwieldy, so I copied it onto lino blocks from the letterpress. This is old household lino glued onto plywood, because it’s old its really hard which I like, print suppliers sell a grey lino but I find this rather too soft. If it’s like this, or solid blocks of wood, or a synthetic material glued onto wood its kinda all the same, so I call them all blocks. Very lush “Pfeil” woodcut tools from Jacksons Arts Supplies. I have been using lino mostly, but also sometimes use a japanese softcut vinyl from “Intaglio print maker”

And experimented, illustrated a great “Singer 319K” domestic machine, nice.

And made more .  .  .  illustrated is a “mobile fold up workbench”, make art anywhere !!!

Bench Hook to hold lino block, not good enough really, and “Pfeil cutting tools”, Swiss, fucking sweet !!

“This Aint Rock N Roll” Loved the Letterpress letters that I got and it became the basis for the XR font. As you can see I am cutting the text logo they designed, it all goes back and forwards.

And more , red japanese transfer paper from Intaglio, possibly overrated.

Its’ pretty good fun, and therapeutic. This one is a scaled up one from an image that I made into a an drawing in “Adobe illustrator”, then Painted on a jacket in oils, then a very small lino cut, looking at it now, i think it may need some more work , to make it bolder, rather than more detailed.

This is preparation for “ Sad Skull”, I lit and photographed a medical skull, printed it at the correct size, transffered the proportions using transfer paper, then with the skull as reference and the first skull since I wanted some of its flavour. Then I worked with a black and a white Molotow paint marker on the lino.

These are things that I am working on now in December, the Saudi gazelle, extinct 2006 from hunting, we need more animals on people and on HiVis.

A woodcut produces and Strong Black and White image, cut with razor sharp tools, “This Aint Rock n Roll” love the simple strong imagery and have used it on XR work, now when I work I consider this futrue use, Circular Creativity

The “finished image from the previous work is above, its probably too complex, I sometimes use car body filler to fill bits and then recut, dirty impure printmaker.

I am currently making some blocks to print white onto dark colours, so they are all inverted. When we do workshops printing onto peoples’ existing clothing this will double what we can print on .

I’m including this because all this should be about experimentation, and these blogs are just describing 3 or 4 processes, when what we really want is everything . .  EVERYTHING !!!!

 The Symbol should be everywhere, so that everyone knows it, so that it keeps us aware.

I just made this object, I sharpened a cold chisel and then hammered it into the coin, then polished it and put matt black paint into the cuts.

“By the act of remaking this coin I declare myself to be in rebellion with the state,  the state that does not protect its, people, the state and the alleged government have failed us by creating a system where the rich gather wealth and power, democracy is a sham , we demand true democracy so that the people can  save the world from the psychotic elites who drive us to armageddon with their fossil fuelled greed”

www.bodypolitic.space

SUPPLIES

www.jacksonsart.com woodcut supplies, also https://intaglioprintmaker.com/ and out of town https://www.lawrence.co.uk/category/printmaking

https://www.gaffatape.com/Fluorescent-Gaffer-Cloth-Tape-1/default.aspx