A sign on the 130-year-old pier at Saltburn-by-the-Sea warns people not to jump off it. On a big surf day surfers make their way to the end of the sturdy 206 metre structure and jump like lemmings into the cold, murky North Sea. Words: Simon Palmer Photos: Ian Forsyth

Following the demise of Clark Foam, 'eco' boards and alternatives to petro-chemical products have been the focus of developments in surfboard technology. Words: Mark Sankey Photos: Alexa Poppe

Mark Sankey and Alexa Poppe discover Autumn's aquatic gifts in a late September road trip spanning France and Spain. Words: Mark Sankey. Photos and Design: Alexa Poppe

Drift checks in with Andrew Crockett following the release of the much-anticipated 'Switch-Foot II', a tribute to surfing's counter-culture.

Sean Mattison has a reputation as a designer, a coach, and a businessman. His competitive experience, retail background and knowledge acquired from testing hundreds of surfboards made him one of the most versatile surfers in California. Words: Rui Ribeiro.

The annual Fish Fry on Australia's Gold Coast gives shapers a non-commercial, non-competitive opportunity to come together and share ideas in a shameless celebration of the fabulous fish. Words: Tommy Leitch Photos: Jamie Bott

Rhino Cutting

May 15, 2011 | Words By: Droog79

“No endangered animals were harmed in the making of this artwork.”


The most excellent Korduroy TV has been around for ages now but it’s only recently that i had a good trawl through the videos on there. I was looking for some advice on making a handplane and stumbled upon this other video about hand-printing a greetings card.

I haven’t done any lino-cutting and printing since scraping a ‘C’ at A-Level art so thought I’d give it a go for the first time in 15 years.

I looked around a couple of stationery shops for the right equipment but with the Korean pronunciation of ‘L’ and ‘R’ being somewhat interchangeable and in-between, I ended up asking, bizarrely, for “Rhino-Cutting” tools. As expected, something got lost in translation but I ended up with a sheet of rubber and some crude woodcarving tools that do the job and didn’t get arrested for animal cruelty, which was a bonus.

The resulting cut  is a bit raw and sketchy thanks to the dodgy tools (you know what a bad workman always blames) and it being mostly freehand and improvised, not to mention created under the influence of cider. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with it for a first go - it’s striking and has a nice textured look.

As you can see, although it looks good inked up, my first few prints haven’t been too successful as I’ve not found any proper printing ink here yet. I tried acrylic paint (as mentioned in the Korduroy video) watered-down acrylic, calligraphic ink, stamping ink, paint mixed with vegetable oil, paint mixed with glue, weird polystyrene paint and all of the above mixed together.

But… I couldn’t seem to get a clear even print that didn’t stick to the paper and pull it up. All this depite my hi-tech printing press that delivers between 55-60kg of pressure (depending on what i’ve eaten that day.)

I will keep you posted on progress and  if/when i finally get a good one I may put a few up for sale on my Droog 79 Sells Out blog to help fund my autumnal van meander along the coastlines of Europe….. All in a good cause.

   

2 Comments


  1. john fellows says:
    May 26, 2011 at 11:16 pm

    Nice cut! Really dig the waves. You can also try using a wooden spoon to print as well. Probably a little easier to control the amount of pressure when printing than using your feet. It’s what I use for my linocuts. Keep it up!

    1
  2. droog79 says:
    May 28, 2011 at 5:41 am

    Hi John,
    thanks for the tip, i’ll try that.
    i did get a better print after buying some proper ink but it’s still not great: http://droog79.blogspot.com/2011/05/bolt-from-black.html

    Are you meant to use the ink neat? it seems so thick and still hasn’t dried after 3 days???
    Thanks.

    2


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