Linocut printing: Printing "The Maskmaker" and trying Durathene brayers for the first time

Unpacking and testing my brand new Durathene brayers from Lawrence art supplies. I am not affiliated with this shop, I'm just sharing my personal opinions.
I have a few rubber brayers (both soft rubber and hard rubber) which weren't too expensive.I mentioned before that you shouldn't waste money on cheap carving tools, but when it comes to brayers you can get away with a lot. Cheap brayers won't last you very long and you have to put in more work when inking the block, but they'll work fine for a while if you keep them in good condition.
Because of that I've been postponing the more pricey ones for a while, but I finally decided to take the leap and invest on some high quality brayers.
The beautiful green material in these brayers is Durathene, a type of polyurethane which is supposed to last more than rubber. Rubber brayers will start to degrade after a while and you'll notice your brayer may start to get sticky over time. According to the description in this shop (Lawrence art supplies), Durathene is a very durable material and it will last for years. It's also very super smooth and soft, perfect for relief printmaking.
The brayers are quite heavy compared to my old ones, which makes an incredible difference when inking the block! The roller just glides with almost no pressure on it. It pretty much did all the work for me, I barely had to push it, only "guide" it, almost.
The diameter of the roller is wider than my old brayers (5cm- I actually wanted their 64mm version, but they were sold out). The wider the diameter, the more ink the roller carries, which means you'll be able to ink the block in just a few easy passes.
On top of this, the brayers are super easy to clean. I rolled them on newspaper and the ink came off almost completely in 3 passes. There wasn't a lot of washing to be done after that, and I was REALLY happy about that aspect!
I tested one of the durathene brayers on my Maskmaker block. This video opens with some images from the Samurai Museum in Berlin- If you have the chance to visit it, don't miss it!
All in all, I am extremely happy about my new Durathene brayers and I think they are completely worth their price.
Lawrence art supplies also offers a less expensive version of these brayers - the Student quality line - they use the same materials, but the measurements of the brayers are different.
Prints of the Maskmaker are available in my Etsy shop.
www.etsy.com/u...
I use Forbo Walton soft grey lino (battleship grey lino) and Caligo Safe wash ink from Cranfield colours.
The paper I used for this print is Silberburg 110gsm paper, which has a lovely texture with a vintage feel to it.
My press is from @theportableprintingpressco.
Handmade prints available at:
honeythiefprin...
Social media:
/ honey_thief_prints
Contact:
[e-mail]
Other prints (digital or other work) available at:
ko-fi.com/hone...
Filming/Editing
www.branstonfi...
Video equipment:
Camera:
www.sony.co.uk...
Lens
www.sony.co.uk...
Music: "Sao Meo Orchestral Mix" by Doug Maxwell/ Zac Zinger

[@eva_unrast]

First of all, your channel is absolutely underrated in my opinion. Your linocut work is great, beautiful, and the aesthetics of your videos are stunning! They reflect the slowness and calmness it takes to accurately work linoleum. Thank you for that! ❤ There's a lot of practice time ahead for me before I can afford such wonderful brayers, though... studio quality is quite affordable. 😊 But please tell me, your press, it looks highly interesting, but the link and also my search for the (Australian?) manufacturer leads nowhere. There are Instagram and Facebook accounts that were still served at least in 2022, but the homepage you link to and linked there leads nowhere. Am I doing something wrong? Do you know anything about this?

[@honeythiefprints]

Hi, thank you so much! 😊 I'm not sure, maybe they've stopped production? I hope not, the press is really nice. Have you tried sending them a message on ig?

[@eva_unrast]

@@honeythiefprints I‘ll try that. Thank you!

[@michaelofparadise]

very nice

[@maikenbaydahl2822]

Great video and beautiful print 🤩

[@honeythiefprints]

Thank you!

[@zurekwchlebie9385]

Thank you for sharing this! I have one wonderful brayer but it's quite big and I really need to buy a smaller one. These durathene ones have caught my eye but I was on the fence whether to buy one as I've never seen anyone use them and didn't see any reviews from more professional printmakers. But feel convinced now:)

[@honeythiefprints]

Ah, that's great! Of course these things are a matter of personal preference, but I'm over the moon with them! I hope you enjoy them too!

[@zurekwchlebie9385]

@@honeythiefprints I had been quite unsure if the paint would stick nicely to them, they look rather "slippery" ;)

[@honeythiefprints]

@@zurekwchlebie9385 I know what you mean, it's because they're so shiny. I hesitated for a long time as well. But they're not slippery, they're like a really soft rubber.

[@AppleBlight]

Where do you get your paper?

[@honeythiefprints]

From Jackson's art supplies and Boesner (online) usually