White Line Printing

Ever since Beth gave me an article on white line printing I have wanted to give the technique a try.  When Daniel Smith had a sale on their Baltic Birch Relief woodblocks last week I ordered some to carve for the technique.  Then I felt guilty--how many cool art supplies have I bought and not yet used??  Don't answer that.  Well, I am guilt free now!  Now I am committed to a print edition where I can try the new technique and use the print blocks.  How is that for everything coming together?  It is almost like I planned it!

White line printing is based on the Japanese woodblock printing method but is totally American.  While the Japanese have separate blocks for each color in their prints, Americans decided to use one woodblock but to print each color separately.  In order to do that, the print paper must be lined up exactly the same each time.  That is accomplished by folding one edge of the paper to create and edge that can be tacked in place and a printing surface that can be folded up and down as the artist adds each color.

Here is a better description of the process by someone who knows more than me.  And below are some white line prints from Kate Hanlon's blog.

  This one is actually the wood block.  You can tell by the wood grain.  It is a work of art on it's own.

Do you have a favorite?  I think I like the flowers best.

The Print Exchange

I've joined 500 world wide artists who will  be making prints for the Just A Second print exchange.  Each participant will create an edition of twelve prints to submit and will receive ten unique prints made by strangers in return! Of the two remaining, one will go into our archive at Brooklyn Art Library and the other will be used in an exhibition here in New York.

I'm so excited!  And I just can't hide it! I'm about to lose control and I think I like it!  I like it!  LOL

Noelani's Quilt

I have a new great-niece.  My niece has adopted a 7 year-old wonderful little girl named Noelani.  Of course, her favorite color is pink.  Here is her 'welcome to the family' quilt.  It is 40 x 46 inches.

Of course, no good deed....  My niece informed me that I had not given her two sons a baby quilt when they were born.  I remember making them both flannel blankets with crocheted edges but that is not a quilt evidently.  So now I am making two more quilts.  Glad I like to make quilts.

Texture Homework

The Fire blog is kicking off a month of texture. The homework is to go on a texture walk and find "texture."  When you stop just looking at things and start seeing the individual details, you start seeing texture.  Here are some of my texture pictures.

Wouldn't that make a fabulous quilt?

Gelli Plate and Haiku

I am in the middle of creating a book.  The pages are pages that I cut out of another book I picked up at Goodwill.  I cut the pages out and printed them with my Gelli Plate.  Then I created Haiku poems from phrases I cut out of books and magazines.  Haiku is 3 a line poem with the first line being 5 syllables, the second has 7 syllables, and the last contains 5 syllables.  I will do a bit more collage work on each before I bind them into a book.  Here are a few examples of my poems.

This one is one of my favorites.  I am an introvert and when I am at a large gathering, this is what it feels like to me.