Kitty sells a kitty

Office visitor, upon spying the cat print - my proof of "Best foot forward" - that i have propped on my desk: "Ooh, is that a real print?"
Me: "Made with my own two hands..."

Told him about how i came to make that one, said that yes, i did have several left from the edition, let him know he could get it from me directly, scrawled out the Etsy shop address, and mentioned a local consignment venue too - though he said he'd much rather get it direct. (Suits me!)

Turns out, he's a local sculptor and longtime buddy of the founder of the wee local arts nonprofit where i toil away on development. Yesterday he stopped by again to pick one up for himself. And apparently showed it to anybody who would hold still long enough, on his way out... i was flagged down by the owner of the little leather shop next door on my way out, with "You made that print Malcolm had...?" 

So i'm glad he was tickled with it, and it's a nice little ego-biscuit for me, too.

Meanwhile, lots of prints are going to various auctions for organizations around the area. There's always a flurry of them in the spring - this week it's the Virginia Association of Museums, the dances run by Bluemont Concert Series, and the Lincoln Elementary PTO. Go forth and support your local cultural institutions, folks! And maybe get some fun art in the process...

Whew.

I could have - and probably should have - chosen the easier route for this commission. There were two photos of a young black cat to work from, one of which would lead to a pretty straightforward print, requiring only a bit of fiction to make the background carve-able, and the other, which looked more complicated every time i peered at it.

Naturally, i picked the more complicated route, a neat shot of the kitty perched on a section of worm fence. It ended up needing four separate blocks, printed in layers - light green, then dark green, then grey-brown, and finally black. It was fussy to do, and there were inconvenient hitches like an arm injury that set things back, and it ended up taking far longer than i'd expected, based on the original plan of a simple, single block print. Feeling a bit guilty for getting the timeline wrong, i decided i ought to do a print from the other photo, too (and in fact, that was something i was able to put together pretty quickly, while finishing the last stages of the original choice). I finally drove out and delivered both today, and was relieved that they were greeted with oohs and aaahs - commissions, while they're fun challenges, are always a little nerve-racking, and this one was for friends, the proprietors of my favorite little used bookshop.

There's an edition of each, so they'll be making their way to the shop sooner (for the simpler one) or later (for the four-color monstrosity, because i haven't even completed the edition yet, and i'm going to need more ink).

And i think i've had enough of carving wood grain for a while...

Fruits of today's labors

I figured i ought to do something start-to-finish at the demo, from first sketch to finished print, so this is what i came up with: a wee pear, a block that's just a couple inches wide. I'm thinking i'll print a few up as ACEOs, once i've had a chance to play with colors in the oil-based ink (i stuck with water-based for the demo, for ease of clean-up, but i do like working with the oil-based stuff better).

Dog and pony show

If you find yourself in the vicinity of Shepherdstown, West Virginia this Saturday (July 25) - for the Contemporary American Theater Festival, say, or to hike, or to play in the river - stop by O'Hurley's General Store between noon and 3:00... i'll be doing a block printing demo in the Great Hall at the shop. (There will, in fact, be both dogs and ponies - or at any rate, a pony mule - among the available prints, too.)

Shhh...

...it's a Mother's Day present:

The hand-colored version of the tiny little cat nose - the printed image is just two inches square. The frame is a made-to-order job from fellow Etsy shop signedandnumbered.

Mini Scrap Exchange

Print exchanges are fun - you get to see what other folks are making, and get artwork you might never have found otherwise - and using up odd bits left over from other projects is satisfying, so when i saw a note about an exchange that combined the two, i signed up right away. This one hadn't really very many rules, except that your prints had to be on two inch by two inch or three inch by three inch pieces of paper.

I haven't had a chance to photograph the goodies that arrived in the (wee tiny) portfolio, but here's a print from one of the editions i submitted, all framed up as a birthday present for a friend... and if you think you need one for your very own, i have a hand-colored version in the shop (one less than i started with, though: there was an unmistakable Maternal Hint that i should send one to Delaware for Mother's Day).

Finally...

The commissioned block print of the Bernese Mountain Dog pups is all done and delivered to a happy customer, so it's time to show the final version here:

Again, i pulled a small edition, so if you need your very own, you can find it at PressingNeeds.

A print. And a correction.

So. Done with the commissioned print, it's been shipped off, the customer is delighted. However, in going over the info before posting the listing of the rest of the edition in the shop, i noted that Dewey here is not a Saint Bernard, but a Bernese Mountain Dog.

In my defense, they do kinda look alike. If you want to take Dewey home with you, you can find him here.

Saints preserve us...

By way of an Etsy trade, i ended up with a commission to carve a block of a charming Saint Bernard named Dewey. It's been fun to do a pooch, after all the cats i've made prints of already... i just put the final touches on the block today, and will be starting proper proofs tomorrow. I'll be making a small edition of these - printed on extra-yummy Fabriano paper and hand-colored - so there will be a few available for the shop, too.

At least his coat is pretty high contrast (much easier than a tabby cat), but still lots of wispy hairs to follow!

Variance and seredipity

Just as i was contemplating hand-coloring the eyes on a few of the new prints, i discovered a loud but serendipitous lime green frame... i expect i'll have to go back and pick up a few more.

Paybacks

Lulubelle J. Fuzzbutt (it's a long story) was, briefly, my grandmother's cat, but landed here after Grandma died. She loves people and attention, and bullies other cats. She isn't actually dumb as two thick planks, but has a tendency to hurtle through life without thinking (e.g., an attempt to rub against my leg turns into a somersault, which turns into tumbling down half a flight of stairs...). She's cost me an astronomical amount at the vet's, mostly following her decision to eat a spool of thread.

I decided it was time for her to help pull her weight around here - and i was looking for something straightforward to carve in between the hen blocks and a half-hatched idea for another multiple color print - so i adapted a photo i'd taken, and sat down to carve.

I'm still trying to work out what to title the print... (if inspiration strikes you, feel free to leave a comment!)

Ready to go

Here's the last item that i'm hoping to squeeze into the box of prints i'm shipping off to Kansas - this design is one i first made to fit onto the cover of those oh-so-handy pocket Moleskine notebooks, but here it makes an appearance on a page from a vintage Reader's Digest Condensed Book...

I've found that the black core mats really seem to work well with the book page prints.

Now, if i can just get the inventory info off of the old computer and onto the new one, i should be all set.

Leaves

We're starting to see just a few leaves turning around here... for those of you who aren't close enough to drop by the show i've got running, here's a peek at the newest item i hung at the library Tuesday:

I love the look of images printed over text, but couldn't quite bring myself to break books to do it. After mulling it over and bouncing it off some bookish friends, i think i found a compromise: for this, i used pages from Reader's Digest Condensed Books, which somehow don't seem to cause the same qualms as "real" books. And of course, i called it "Leaves" because i can't resist a play on words.

Experimentation

Finally finished that pesky lino block, with the image of Hellion melting in the windowsill... it gave me the opportunity to learn all sorts of things, to wit:

• The only transfer method that had any effect whatever was washing the scanned-and-printed sketch with white vinegar. But even then, grey linoleum doesn't show lines worth a darn.
• The bit about heating the linoleum to make it easier to cut? Works like a charm.
• I really, really like vintage lino cutters.
• Inking the lino is quite a bit different than the soft rubber blocks.
• It doesn't like the same sort of paper, either - wants something much softer in order to get a good impression. I switched to a mulberry/bamboo paper in the end.

And the finished product, framed up with what was around the house, mostly:

Convergence

In the Goodwill shop in Martinsburg (of all places), i stumbled upon a vintage Speedball linoleum cutter set: wooden handle and five blades. I figured there was a fair-to-middling chance the blades would be dull, though they didn't appear to be nicked or otherwise damaged. They can (theoretically) be sharpened, and the whole thing was a buck, so i didn't have much to lose - as soon as i finished being astonished, it went into my basket, and i laughed at the notion of my vintage shop and my print shop converging.

It was interesting to compare it to the new blades i've used, even ones of the same brand and style - when i tried it out on a lino block, i was delighted by the smoothness of these blades in cutting. I also think the #1 blade (the tiny V-cutter i use so much) has a more acute angle, so you can get a finer line... i still have to look at new and old blades side by side to check that, but that's my initial impression. While i admit that the newfangled plastic handles that unscrew to store blades are handy, i'll definitely be hunting for a stash of the vintage blades to use!

Gearing up...

I'm really, really trying to carve out time (yeah, bad pun, i know...) to get some new designs ready for printing: i've got a little show scheduled for the fall, and in order to fill up the space and rotate things a bit during the exhibit, i'll need some new blocks.

Here's one i'm working on, from a photo that appeared here last summer:

When in Lindsborg...

Lindsborg, Kansas is a town more or less right in the middle of Kansas, with a population of 3,458... and a bit of a Dala Horse obsession.  It's a college town, so though it's in the middle of lots of farmland, has more than you might expect in the way of coffeehouses, art galleries, museums, and so forth.  And its latest addition to the downtown is a little boutique of hand-crafted and vintage goodies, called "Sarahendepity," after owner Sarah Ash.

Sarah's filled her shop with antique and vintage treasures gathered for her Etsy shops, and has also set up her studio there, so you can watch while she makes her etched and embossed metal jewelry.  In addition to the jewelry, you'll find vintage toys, typewriters (Sarah's a typewriter maven), a bit of Edwardian clothing, and, yes, block prints from PressingNeeds...

 I sent a big box of framed prints to Kansas for the shop opening, and there will be more designs headed there soon.

If you visit that part of the world, drop in and have a look - you can find info, check hours, and see more photos here.  You'll be sure to find something lovely for yourself or a friend - it's a delightfully eclectic selection of items, and a fun place to wander through!

(Yep, that's my fiddle print on the wall over the bicycle...)

Fussy

I was working on a woefully inadequate quantity of sleep today, so this afternoon, i decided that hand-coloring one of my block prints was about the right speed.  I do the "Tabby love" print pretty regularly, and it only needs a little bit, but this block is much more complicated to color - i used about five different browns, and of course, the scale of the whole thing is tiny.  When i paused to take this shot, i was probably about 75% done.  I think this one will require a little difference in the pricing because of the extra time invested... i do like the effect, though!

More mason jars

Of all the quart mason jars i've got, there's one style that's my favorite: the old "Strong Shoulder" Atlas jars.  I have several, with at least two versions of the mold - the lettering is much more squared on one type.  A friend with more reference books to work with than i've got (sigh - more books to add to the wish list...) dated one jar i've got to about 1915, and i've seen pictures of an Atlas brochure from the 1930s that features this type of jar, so i know they're at least that old.

So when i went to cut a block of a mason jar, i knew just which one to go for.  Here's the end result:

(If you need one for your kitchen, you can find it at PressingNeeds...)

Running late

So my little project for New Year's Day is - ahem - finishing up the Christmas cards.  (Hey, i live in Appalachia, i can claim we're celebrating Old Christmas on January 6th, right?)

I carved the block a while ago - even got my mother to mail me one of the antique reindeer so i could take photos to work from - but there were some technical difficulties with the ink i used to print it and more with getting a workable file set up on my computer (with somewhat limited software offerings, a recent virus, and complete refusal to speak to the network, including the printer...).

Anyway, here's the reindeer block print, and along with it, my best wishes for all of you in the New Year.