Potato printing
Make a printing stamp out of an old potato using a home-made 'carving tool'.
This easy technique uses paper clips for marking out and carving your design into slices of potato ready to print.
Get an adult to cut your potato into 3 or 4 thick slices - crosswise for rounder shapes or lengthwise for longer oval shapes.
You will need...
- Paper
- A large potato cut into 3 or 4 thick slices
- Pencil
- Paint brush
- Acrylic or poster paint
- Two medium paper clips
- Your creativity!
Step by step...
- Sketch the design for your print on a small piece of paper. Make sure the design is quite simple and not bigger than the potato slice.
- Centre the design on the potato slice.
- Unfold half of a paper clip to make a pointy tool and trace your design by poking holes through the paper into the potato slice. Remove the paper once finished.
- Using the other unbent paper clip, scoop out the parts of the potato that you don't want to be visible when printing. Pat the potato stamp dry with a paper towel once you've finished.
- Use a wet paint brush to spread paint evenly onto the potato stamp.
- Press and hold your potato stamp onto a piece of paper, hold for about 3 seconds.
- Carefully lift from the paper and check out your print. Repeat and make a pattern or combine it with other designs.