Essdee Block Printing Ink Prussian Blue, LPI/17

Well, it took a while to find this during Covid as everywhere seemed to be out of stock. I guess everyone's thinking the same as me. in lockdown. Yipeee I can get on with some line prints. Just a selection here. mostly 10cm x 10cm and iv'e worked out you can get just over 400 prints from 1 tube of ink. So I think thats pretty good Value. works out at .018 pence per print. This is I think the best printing ink I've used so far. I would highly recommend this ink

The media could not be loaded.  It’s a huge tube! I didn’t expect it to be that big!I really liked printing with this.. great colourIt dries really fast after printingAnd cleaning the plates and equipment was super quick , even only with water.They stay quite “liquid “ - transparent on paper ..I am not sure if it’s because it’s water based or I applied to scarcely .In the following prints it “caked “ the smaller carving

This ink is fine for beginners (like me) who are going to make a lot of mistakes, and okay for teachers as you get a lot of ink for a reasonable price, BUT not the perfect choice for teachers as it takes a long time to dry, so potentially, unless you handle the prints very carefully, a couple of days after you made them they could still mark. If the ink is very thick it will take even longer and so really not great for prints where you are planning to add a second colour. It is easy to clean up, so would probably be perfect for using with young children where teaching the process is the main thing rather than getting a perfect result. I would say it is not suited for anyone who wants to make prints to a high standard as apart from the drying issues it doesn't have a great look to it once dry. I am using it for proofs but won't be using it for final prints.

The reason I give 3 stars is just because I wouldn’t say the dried final colour is Prussian blue. I thought the blue would be deeper and richer. But I’m not too disappointed by the final colour - just a lot lighter and more on the grey side.

Ordered a tube of white as I was running out of the usual Marabu which is excellent. The description does say it has enhanced tack but this ink is so thick and tacky that the paper was reluctant to part company with the plate. Also this ink did not seem to want to mix with other inks, whether this was due its viscosity or something else I can't tell but all efforts produced very blotchy colours, used a bit of the remaining Marabu white and perfect colour mix and no issues.

They are easy to use and print out quite well, but they take days to fully dry. Even on the 3rd day of drying, the ink smudges still. It's decent for practising your prints but not good for using in final pieces of work or giving as gifts etc.

Used this for lino printing onto non-porous card. Ink spreads and rolls well, great coverage with no lumps. Surfaces washed easily with warm water. Test prints (on paper) were touch-dry overnight, prints on card became fully dry after a few days.

This ink has a good consistency, sticks to the roller and lino well and gives a good finished print.