Around My Studio

Working on some prints from my lino cuts.  I may do a show soon.  It's hard to get enough stock made to do a show when I have two little ones under my feet for most of the day.  But maybe......

Here are the prints.  I laid both of my linos out on a towel and printed them at the same time.

 Here they are cut and ready to package.

Lino Cut Owl

With sales slowing down to a hault in my hubby's Etsy shop, JoonBuggy, I decided to give buyers an incentive to purchase books from our shop.  I will soon be introducing a print of my owl lino cut as a freebie to those who buy any book from his shop. 

This is the sketch I started with.  I used carbon paper to transfer the drawing to the lino surface.  I had to stop when I was half done and start over again because I forgot to transfer the reverse image to the carving surface and I did not like this guy as well in reverse.

Here is the lino halfway through the carving process.

I finished the carving and did a test print, but I really need a good brayer.  I have spots in each print that have less ink, and I also have places where the ink fills the carved lines.  This is all because the brayer I am using is a cheap plastic brayer that is very uneven.  It even has a few indentions in it.  Yikes.  I also forgot to sand the protective coating off the linoleum before I got started which causes the ink to kinda pool up on the surface.  Next time I will make sure to do more research before starting a project with an unfamiliar technique!

Here is the finished carving and a (sorry excuse for a) test print.

I believe I can make this work with a good brayer.  If not I will recarve this cute guy again.  Live and learn, right?

New Project!!!!! Owl Flower

I am currently working on another owl project.  I just finished a couple of commissioned pieces for a friend and that got me in the mood to try something a little more tedious and time consuming - and ultimately more rewarding.  So I got out an original sketch and my light projector and went to work.  Here are a few pictures of the progress I have made.

It's an owl flower, or mandala, or whatever.  Hubby says I draw a lot of circles.  I guess it's true.  I love to make these flower drawings, they look to me like figures gathering, dancing, around one center, one goal, one fire, one story.  Maybe they are getting ready to sing their heart songs. 

I will update when I have made more progress.  I plan on loading a few extra photos onto my Flickr photostream, so check it out if you wanto to see more.