Hello everyone! This week I had a blast printing with masking tape! I’ll go through my process with you all and show you a few prints I did using this method!

I fell in love with printmaking last semester, and thought I couldn’t love it anymore than I already did. I was proven wrong this past week when we started an unusual way to print, with tape! We started out with a plexiglass base, and I put 2 layers of masking tape horizontally across. I wanted the tape to be thick enough that when I inked up the plate the ink wouldn’t get into the white space where it wasn’t supposed to be. I then drew out my design on the tape, and once I thought it looked okay, I carved it out with an exact knife. I wasn’t too worried about slicing into the plexiglass (which happened) because the ink wouldn’t be directly on the plate anyway. Once it was all cut out and everything looked good, I mixed water with matte medium and went over the tape so it wouldn’t peel while I was printing, it also makes it last longer. After it was done drying, I started printing! I was also able to use lots of different colors with ease with this method!

Left is the finished print, right is what the plate looked like with the tape on it!

This method was surprisingly easy and painless to do, and each print I made I was actually happy with! I’m actually working on another print like these in the near future, stay tuned!