“I’m a scavenger” (a start)

Months ago, I signed up for the Arthouse Co-op’s Sketchbook Project. Each participant (there are over 28,000) fills a 50-page Moleskine notebook, working in whatever media he/she wants and working according to their chosen theme. In 2011, all books embark on a traveling exhibition of nine U.S. cities. On the back of each notebook is a unique barcode, so artists can track how many times their book has been “checked out.”

I thought that signing up would be my motivation to get out and draw, but actually blocking out the time—and finding the nerve to start—took a while. I started today, finally, and I feel so out of practice. The theme I picked is “I’m a scavenger.” I like it, but I think I’ll have to take it beyond its most literal meaning (necrophagic creatures) and see what kinds of figurative representations of scavenging I can produce. With St. John as a setting, I should have no trouble filling my book. Its pages will eventually be scanned and cataloged online, but since my blog needed an update anyway, I’m posting the first couple drawings:

(desiccated crab)

(hole-y hermit crab shell)

Baby sling

More on this later...my mom helped make this baby sling for friends on island who have a baby girl due in a few months.

One side of the fabric is cut from reclaimed cotton sheets from a hotel on St. John. I decorated by dyeing the cloth and stenciling baby turtles (and a mama) with pearlescent fabric paints.

Buttons

This is considered printmaking, sort of?
Pendants made in 2004 at Maho Bay - we impressed native plants in clay, then cut out shapes which were glazed, fired and strung to form necklaces.
 

















Had a "clay day" at home with a friend, which was cut short by a quick-moving downpour, but managed to start a new project--buttons inspired by the pendant-making. Figure they'll have many potential uses.

Method: Spiny lobster woodcut reduction

Some insight into the process of yesterday's lobster print post.

I started with an 8x10" shina plywood block, woodcutting tools, a small rubber brayer, and rice paper.

I own four colors of Akua Intaglio and one jar of their transparent base modifier, which is just the ink without the color. I hoped that by adding it, I would thin out the first layers of color a bit. By the time I got to the darkest colors in the reduction, I added very little base.

The tricky part of woodcut reductions, especially those with more than a couple colors, is making sure the edges are exactly aligned each time a new color is printed. Most printmakers have their own tried-and-true registration technique. My system was rudimentary and hastily-configured, consisting of the back of a Costco Cost U Less-sized cereal box marked with pen. It performed adequately. Knowing several carpenters here, I should just ask someone to make a real registration that fits my shina blocks.

The (quite repetitive) REDUCTION process:

1. Carved out first area--i.e. my lightest layer, or all of the places on the paper that would remain white/the color of the paper. I used a brayer to apply my yellow+modifier mixture to the block, making sure the ink layer was thin and even. Since this is a relief print where the brayer rolls over the surface, no ink goes into the areas I had cut out (hence, the cut-out parts stay the color of the paper). Next, I laid paper on top, smooth side down, and rubbed with a wooden spoon to transfer ink. All of the areas I had carved stayed white, while the yellow became the background color. Repeated this for each sheet (7 total)

2. Carved away all of the areas that would remain yellow. Inked entire block with green and printed. Repeated for each sheet.

3. Third carving (areas that would remain green). Inked block with orange and printed. Repeated for each sheet.

 

4. Fourth carving (areas that would remain orange). Inked with red and printed. Repeated for each sheet.

5. Fifth carving (areas that would remain red). Inked with blue and printed. Repeated for each sheet.

6. Sixth carving (areas that would remain blue). Inked with black and printed. Repeated for each sheet.

See how it's a reduction--a relief print whereby I reduced the amount of wood on the block until all that remained was the bit of  final layer of color. And notice how the lightest colors are printed first. If they were last, they wouldn't be visible atop darker colors printed below.

I ended up with six prints in the edition. One of them didn't register correctly. Looking at it makes me dizzy.

So, this wasn't the tropical-looking spiny lobster I envisioned, but with this basic ink set, I could never mix those kinds of colors. For now, I'll just keep working with what I've got.

Spiny lobster woodcut reduction

I finished a Caribbean spiny lobster woodcut reduction series today. There will be either five or six prints in the edition. I'll post later about the carving and inking process. I used one block and six colors plus white.

They're drying now on the kitchen counter. The Akua ink doesn't take long to dry permanently...maybe an hour or so.

Who needs a press when you have feet?

I came across this image that accompanies an article in the May/June 2010 issue of New England Home magazine. It grabbed my attention because I immediately recognized block printing going on in the middle three rows...but I wondered what the heck is happening in the bottom row. It turns out that another terrific photo explains.


The article tells the story of a printmaking guild called the Folly Cove Designers that was active throughout the 1940s-60s in Cape Ann in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The group was known for its block-printed fabrics whose designs drew from medieval craft imagery and nature surrounding Cape Ann. Their work became quite popular as it appeared in department stores in the form of placemats, tea towels, tablecloths, napkins and other practical and useful everyday items. I like this idea of art for utility's sake rather than just for its own.


The founder of Folly Cove Designers, Virginia Lee Burton, was a Renaissance woman of her time. She is perhaps most known as a children's book author and illustrator, winning the 1943 Caldecott Medal for her illustrations in The Little House. For her printmaking, she used linoleum affixed to wood (it was inexpensive) as her medium and her sense of place and surroundings as inspiration. Soon, she began offering a printmaking course; by 1968, this had evolved into the Folly Cove Designers. "Graduates" of her class could submit a design, which, if accepted, was printed onto fabric and made into products.


I was most delighted by her method. Since she didn't have a printing press, after inking the cut linoleum, she would jump up and down on the block to create the print. Take another look at that bottom row in the image above--then see the photo below!). The group later acquired a 1865 Acorn Press. I still like the jumping technique, although I'd bet it works better on linoleum than shino wood. In the absence of a press, the back of a wooden spoon is still my go-to.


Apt timing. After a day of sailing yesterday, I was considering doing some kind of sailboat print. Understandably, this was a popular motif for Folly Cove. Time to start sketching...

 

(Due credit... Photos from The Cape Ann Museum, as seen in New England Home magazine, Vol. 5, No. 5, pp. 70-74)

Small woodcut reductions

I have a few projects in the works including an oil painting, monotypes and two woodcuts. The painting (to be featured in a future post) was done in water mixable oils (Winsor & Newton Artisan), while my prints use Akua Intaglio water-based ink (made with soy oil). These materials make for nontoxic work and easier cleanup. This site is a good reference for more info on nontoxic printmaking.

Some proofs of the two-color woodcut reductions are below. They're small--between 2-3" wide. More on these later.

And here's the first layer of a spiny lobster reduction woodcut. It's about 9x12". I haven't decided how many colors to use just yet.