Charlotte Hughes
Why monoprinting suits the kitchen table
Monoprinting is the most forgiving form of printmaking you can do at home. There is nothing to carve, nothing to etch, and no press required — just a gel plate, a roller, some paint and paper. The gel plate is a squidgy slab of polymer, usually somewhere between A5 and A4, which holds a thin film of paint on its surface. Press a texture into that film, lay paper on top, rub with your hand, peel, and you have a one-off print. No two pulls are ever identical, which is exactly the point. It is ideal for anyone who dislikes the fuss of "proper" printmaking, and it works perfectly well on a protected kitchen table with the kettle on.
What you actually need on the table
- A gel plate — A5 is a good starting size and easier to handle than A4. Keep it on a smooth, flat surface such as a chopping board or a tile.
- A brayer — a soft rubber roller, roughly 5–7 cm wide is plenty. Cheap ones work; just keep them clean.
- Paint — heavy-body acrylics, craft acrylics or proper water-based printing ink all work. Avoid anything labelled fast-drying, as you need a few minutes of working time.
- Paper — smooth cartridge paper around 120–160 gsm is ideal. Copier paper is fine for practising; thin Japanese papers pick up fine detail beautifully.
- A protective layer — an old tablecloth, a sheet of baking parchment or a plastic shower curtain cut down to size.
- Kitchen roll, a damp cloth and baby wipes within reach at all times.
- A spray bottle of water to keep paint workable, and an apron you do not love.
Textures hiding in your cupboards
You do not need to buy texture tools. The best marks come from things with either a strong flat pattern or a firm raised edge. Bubble wrap is the classic — press it gently into the wet paint and lift, and you are left with a field of little circles. Corrugated card, especially with the top layer peeled away to expose the ridges, gives strong stripes. Lace, crochet doilies, netting from a bag of onions, and the mesh of a cooling rack all leave lovely repeats.
Then there are the one-offs: rubber bands stretched around a wooden block, string wound tightly round a rolling pin, feathers, fern fronds, dried seed heads, a silicone baking mat with a waffle pattern, even the tread of a clean Wellington boot. Leaves are wonderful — press them vein-side down, roll over the back of the paper, and lift to reveal every rib.
You can work two ways. Either press the object into wet paint and remove it, printing the shape left behind, or ink the object itself with the brayer and press it face-down onto the plate. The first gives you a negative shape, the second a positive one. Try both and see which suits your subject.
Rolling, pressing and pulling a print
Thin layers are everything. Squeeze out a blob of paint no bigger than a pea, then roll it out in every direction until the plate is covered in an even, slightly tacky film. If it looks wet and glossy, you have too much and the print will smudge. If it looks patchy and dry, mist the plate lightly with water and roll again.
Once your texture is in place, lay the paper down and smooth it from the centre outwards with the flat of your hand or the back of a spoon. Do not slide the paper — press straight down. Then peel slowly from one corner. The first pull is your main print. Lay a second sheet down on the same plate and you get a ghost print: paler, softer and often more interesting than the first.
Building layers is where monoprints really come alive. Let each layer dry for a minute or two — a hairdryer on the cool setting speeds this up nicely — then print straight over it with a new texture or a different colour. Keep a sheet of scrap paper to roll excess paint onto so your colours stay clean.
Cleanup without wrecking the kitchen
Acrylic paint dries permanently on fabric, so clean as you go rather than leaving it all until the end. Wipe the gel plate with a baby wipe or a damp cloth; never scrub it with anything abrasive, as scratches will show up in every future print. Wash the brayer immediately under warm water with a drop of washing-up liquid, working the paint out from the edges of the roller. A brayer left sitting in paint is a brayer ruined.
Prints can be laid flat on newspaper to dry, or sandwiched between sheets of blotting paper if they are still tacky. Once dry, flatten any curl by stacking them under a heavy book for a day or two. Store finished work flat, away from direct sunlight, and label the back with the date and the materials you used — you will be glad of it later when you want to repeat something lovely.
A few habits worth forming
Keep a notebook of colour combinations and textures that worked, because monoprinting is hard to repeat from memory. Do not overwork a print: if it looks nearly right, stop. And remember that the "failed" pulls are often the ones you come back to — the accidental smudges and half-lifted textures are part of what makes this medium so expressive. Set aside an hour, cover the table, and start with something simple like bubble wrap and two colours. The results will surprise you.
