Spray can painting and silk-screen printing Moleskine covers

I am a potter and a printmaker. I like etching and linocut but nowadays I make silkscreen prints and sometimes print directly into my moleskine sketchbook. Last week I was printing some T-shirts and suddenly decided to print the same design on the cover of my Japanese folded Moleskine with the metallic water-based ink. This Japanese album will be used for the International Moleskine Exchange Project, group Moly_X_17.

I have also printed self-made water slide-off decals with the coat of arms. I thought the black cover of a moleskine sketchbook was too dark for black outlines and a helmet without a background. So I have painted it first with a spray can, the kind that street artists use for graffiti.

by Katya Taganova
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Comments

[Speedmaster]

Very nice! I would like to emboss/deboss the covers of my journals. Anyone know how to do this, ideally cheaply? What tools are needed?

[Eric Au]

If you can find some old daisy wheel type writers that have the 'fonts' on a wheel, you can break off the letters and tape them into a row. I did it and they looked great!

[Pete]

Hey Katya, Very nice! I have been wanting to paint on my Moleskine, and have asked questions in forums about what type and brand of paint will work best. I didn't get a lot of answers. Would you like to share what type and brand of paint you use and how you prepare the surface?

Like your design!

[Katya Taganova]

For silk-screen printing I use Nazdar 9500 Series AquaPrint II Screen Ink.