Artful Unboxing | Box 3

I've been receiving the Artful boxes since they first released them in March. The first two boxes have been brilliant and I'm sure this box will be no exception. This quarter's box theme is printing which is something I haven't done since school! I absolutely love receiving these boxes of inspiration and creativity through the door every three months and I can't wait to show you what we've got inside box three this time.

What's Inside Artful's Box 3?

This month, we have all you need to be able to lino print. It's one of the easiest forms of printing but it doesn't make it 'easy'! When you print, you have to create your design in reverse and that you only take off what you don't want to be printed. It's an art form I truly appreciate and one I wish I did more as an artist at uni and one I'm looking forward to trying out over the next couple of months.

The best thing about what you get in the artful box is that everything is great quality. It's why I love the Artful boxes so much. You've got enough to practise on and make a good few pieces of art with. I've never had any of these resources in my art collection and I'm glad to have them now.

Magazine - Issue 3

This quarter's magazine is filled with printing ideas, tutorials, artists and interviews and I absolutely love reading these. I love seeing what artists are doing, how they've established themselves and the tutorials are brilliant. Just from reading this, I have so many ideas for what I want to print with my printing materials. I'm really keen to create a quote print and a couple of pieces for Christmas presents thanks to the content in Issue 3.

Essdee Lino Cutter and Brayer Ink Roller

First, in this box, we have the basic tools for cutting lino ready to print.  The Essdee lino cutter has ten different sized blades to help you cut your lino perfectly every time. The blades are angled to make cutting lino easier and are very sharp so be careful when using it! Tip: cut away from yourself for the safest lino cutting technique.

As well as the lino cutters, we also received this ink roller to help get the perfect print. Rubber rollers are perfect for ink printing and a staple anyone who wants to get into lino printing.

Lino Sheets, Micron Acetate Sheet and Surface Media Paper

You can't get lino printing without lino sheets and in the box, we received three sheets to get us started. With the tutorials and inspiration in the magazine, you can create absolutely any design you'd like on these linos. They are almost A4 in size so you've got a lot to work with and if you'd prefer to make smaller prints, you can always cut them down to do so. Lino sheets are reusable too so you can create many prints with them once they're cut!

I was a little confused when I saw a single acetate sheet in the box but after looking in the magazine, I realised what it was for. The acetate sheet is used to roll the ink onto using the roller. This helps the roller apply a smooth and even layer on ink onto the lino but I do wish that we received a couple of these in the box rather than the one because you never know when you need an extra or a replacement for these.

Something that I love about the Artful box is that in every box they have always supplied the paper needed to execute each Artful project perfectly. There are different types of paper for different mediums of art and this time we've received a pad of paper which is perfect for printing. This paper is premium heavyweight paper at 220gsm. It is great for pencil, watercolour, pen, calligraphy, pastels, light washes and, of course, ink. Paper can be very expensive but we have been lucky enough to receive a full pad of 25 sheets here to get our lino printing on!

Essdee Red and Black Block Printing Ink

Last but not least, we have one of the most important things needed for lino printing and that is the block printing ink. This ink by Essdee is a great quality water-based ink and is made to be easily cleaned and quick-drying. It's also made to create the smoothest vivid prints and can be mixed to create new colours. We received black and red which I think are two great starter colours and I'm already tempted to get a blue, yellow and white so that I can print in some other colours.

My Thoughts on Box 3

I am so excited by this box and this box reminds me of every reason I signed up to this subscription box. Every three months I receive a new art skill to try out and I am totally inspired by lino printing and all the possibilities it brings.

I think the products in this box are brilliant and of great quality with more than the price paid for the subscription box of products included and it's something I've always appreciated about this box. You're paying for good quality products and so you feel that the box is worth the price you pay.

If there's one thing that I feel that is missing in this box it's some tracing paper. In many of the tutorials, they often mention using tracing paper to draw designs on rather than drawing it straight onto the lino. This is not only great to make sure that you get a perfect design but it means that you can draw it the way you want it to look like on the print. This is because when you put it on the lino it'll be reversed and printed the correct way. If that makes sense...

Apart from that, I think the box is absolutely perfect and probably the best one of the three they've released so far.

If you're interested, you can also find my previous unboxings where I share and review what was in Artful's first and second box in the links.

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