A Fresh Print or Two...

 Here is a lovely little boy, Porter.  He's a commission for a sweet friend and was so much fun to carve.  I haven't done many animals as portraits but he has me interested in doing more!  With just a little left to go, I should be done with him this coming week. 

Big Brother... can't decide on a title for this one but, it's drawn from a photo last summer.  There's a magical, beautiful trail through the woods to the ocean beach at Salishan, OR.  We're going back again... probably next year.  This year it's all about Cannon Beach :)  I'll be painting this one as soon as the ink dries and have another new ballet scene ready to carve.  Plus another little girl ballet scene.  I've got my carve on now :)

First 100 Women of 2012... Thursday

Here are 3 more lovelies to share for woodcut Thursday. All of 'em are test prints - I've gone back and tweaked/cleaned up this and that. Then, the final printing and on to painting it as soon as the ink dries. Check out a few more at my flickr here.

Happy almost long weekend!!

ps Blogger is not letting me post a link right now... but, you can find my flickr badge on the right hand side of the screen :)

Enough With the Cards...

I had so many duds last time I printed these cards on sheet music I did it over and came out with a lot of good ones... these will end up around town and in the etsy shop. OK, I promise this is the last post about Christmas cards for this year!!

The last of the Christmas Cards...

Finally started feeling better today and finished printing up the Christmas cards after a trip to the art store for more paper. It's Murphy's law... the paper I've been using (Canson colorline) is being discontinued, arg. Anyway, when the time came to print... I used a bit of the paper I bought and then thought these would look great on sheet music or old book paper. There are some in the etsy shop now and the rest will go to a great book shop downtown and possibly a gallery.

Night Printing

shadow print

The 'duds'

Last night I finally got to a point where it was time to print, yay! The ink didn't start flying til after 10pm... and there was a fly in the ointment. My little boy is a night owl and came down a few times to help me turn the wheel during the printing process. When my back was turned... he messed with the pressure adjustments and suddenly, the wood was sliding away from the paper... etc. Lucky for him it was later, after he'd gone to bed that I'd realized what happened!

Anyway, after that problem passed... I finally ended the night around 1am. Lots o' cards were printed (I plan on putting them in assortment packs) and 2 of the new 'shadow' works were printed on colored paper in colored inks. More on that project in the coming days!

Fresh Prints

Hooray for printing days! deciding I was at a stopping point, I needed to print in order to see what direction to take these carvings. My son helped me turn the wheel on the press and watched as I pulled the paper from the matrix. He was thrilled to see the process- (of course these little moments warm my heart!)
So next, I'll clean them up a bit, finish and print them again in bright colors on colored paper... aahhhh, progress. :)

Spooky...

I know it's a bit early for Halloween stuff but... here is My Underwood in black and orange. Who knew an old typewriter could look kind of scary with the right color combination! This is a woodblock print on black linen and light orange ink. Likely to become a pillow.

Woodblocks on Linen

Ocean and Beach on black linen... destined to become a pillow

After a special request from a gallery employee... I printed the image she wanted on linen and will make a purse. It was while I was printing that I went a bit crazy, printing a whole bunch of woodblocks on fabric. I'm sending some to my mom who wants to make a quilt out of them... some for purses/totes and others will be pillows for my etsy shop!

Fresh May Prints

The prints above my press

Last night I got lucky and had some time to print!!! Here is a peek at my printing studio, it's a bit messy but it's a great set up and I can leave everything out so I'm ready to go when I get a chance to print. Now, I just have to wait for them to dry. I printed on some old book pages and solid printed backgrounds to print over... plus some larger ones that I will also be printing over. It's exciting to do some layering... haven't done it for ages. :)