Printmaking and new toys

Last Thursday was the second session in the Color Reduction in Block Printing class.  I knew we were going start carving our 8 x 10" wood blocks so I came prepared with a tracing of this greeting card.  I traced it in the same orientation as the card so it will print in the reverse - the bird will be looking East.

I finished carving and inked it with yellow, going from light to dark.  The areas that I have already removed will be white on the paper.  Half the class was doing linoleum cuts and when they were all done, the press settings had to be changed so wood block folk could print, but unfortunately the jig wasn't deep enough to work with wood.  Julie our instructor promised to make a new one before the next class.  It's just as well as I can see a lot of chatter and noise - need to remove more wood.

Since all A6 Ambassadors (volunteers) are part time now I have every other Monday free, so Ian and I decided to go out for lunch.  There are so many good places to eat here, but we try to hold it to twice a month, motivated more by body mass than the wallet.  We ate at Broken Top Bottle Shop (yum!) and the business next door is a yoga studio.  One wonders how this works with a couple feet of snow!

We ran some errands ending at Costco and since we've been talking about updating our three-year-old iPhones we went to the cell kiosk to see what the current options are.  It turns out that 17th was the last day of Costco's rebate offer - $200 for your old phone.  These are the 7s and the old ones are in the mail.  The papa bear phone is Ian's - New toys!

Last night I was able to print my first two colors. I removed all the bits that at I wanted to stay yellow and then  inked it with red and ran it through the press again.  There's a whole system of "registering" the paper so that the block strikes in the same place every time but I'd have to do that as a separate whole post!

We each are making four prints but the one the second from the left is pretty much ruined by excessive ink on the brayer - a disappointing lesson that I won't repeat.

This is it's state after the second run through the press.  Tomorrow night is our final class where we will finish carving, then print and critique.  I knew I would feel rushed if I waited until then so brought it home to remove everything that I want to stay red and yellow.

When I ink it with black, the only thing that will get inked is what I haven't carved away.  I also cut a little deeper into the areas where I don't want the black to reach.  I need a couple of additional tools plus the sharpening stones. New toys!