crystal portraits finished!

clockwise from top >> tibetan clear quartz : tangerine quartz : amethyst

I just finished up my crystal portraits this morning! The black outlines on the tangerine quartz prints are drying as I type.

After a few failed attempts at realigning the old Tibetan quartz linos I scrapped them and started over. (So much better!) The newly carved blocks were much easier to register. It's very subtle, but I snuck a little yellow into the white ink along the bottom half of those guys and love the way it turned out.

Today would be a good day to take them out for listing photos as it's sunny and fairly dry, but as I said before, the black on the tangerine quartz is still very fresh and I don't want it to get all smudged and ruined. Dang. I really wanna get that part done. I'm definitely going to sell them as a set on Etsy, but can't decide if I should also offer them individually as they're quite small.

in progress :: crystal portraits

I've been working on my miniature linocut crystal portraits again and I think I totally nailed it on the amethyst!

I am so happy with the way these came out, even better than I hoped and definitely better than I expected. (They're only two and a half inches square!) Before I started the amethyst prints I had completed a run of Tibetan clear quartz, but now seeing the quality of the amethyst I'm going to re-carve and print them.

Each print in this series (a third stone is coming, tangerine quartz!) will be printed with two blocks, one for the shape and one for the outline. I've already carved down the outlines on the Tibetan quartz so the line weight is thinner and I'll reprint it in black, the shape will stay white but maybe with a little pop of yellow somewhere. Lining up the registration on the amethyst prints was fairly easy because I made sure the carved images on both of the blocks were positioned identically, unfortunately I didn't make sure of this on the Tibetan quartz blocks and the images are positioned at slightly different angles making proper registration much more difficult. Hopefully I can find a way to compensate for this with out having to carve one of the blocks again. I've posted this image before, but here are some of the drawings that started these portraits.

listed

I finally got to listing the prints from my make-ation! I took them, as well as some new patches to Myrtle Edwards Park for a photoshoot - it was a humid 80 degree September day, I wasn't feeling too well, I was sweating like crazy and I really thought I was going to die of dehydration while I was there. It's ridiculous, I know, but that's the story! If there had been less trash floating in the sound I would've gone in for a dip clothes and all, but I settled for wading.

Last week I whipped up a second set of mountain patches again inspired by one of my watercolor paintings. These mountains are a little larger and made entirely from repurposed fabrics! (Old clothes, bedsheets, etc.) I really like them and I think the t-shirt fabric will wear well over time. See the listing here.

I also photographed a print that I have been working on for quite some time, I believe I asked for help with it in this post more than a year ago! Originally a collage from my first art journal, I think this print has more incarnations in it than I have yet to discover. I have two linos carved for this image: a positive and a negative. The positive is seen in the post I listed above and prints the outlines that made the illustration; the negative, which is this one here, prints all the space within those outlines. I was hemming and hawing over adding more colors/layers/textures/what-have-you and after feeling overwhelmed by it forever decided to stick with something simple, at least for now. The yellow ink on brown paper was a little difficult to photograph as shadows make it appear greenish, but it looks great in person. Listed here.

This next print is one of my favorites. It was inspired by a wildly visionary dream I had one night, a dream so vivid I'm still not over it. In the dream a mountain rose up from the ground against the night sky, the tallest mountain ever, so tall its tip reached the edge of Earth's atmosphere and reflected itself back, curving around the inside of the sphere like glass in a marble. This print is available in two sizes: 5"x7" on cover stock parchment or 4"x6" on text weigh parchment. Listed here.

Mission accomplished! I also gave my shop a make-over as I worked on all these listings. Before, I had the most direct or straight on shot of my item as the first photo shoppers see in an effort to stand out amongst other listings in search results, but I found the look overwhelming and too in-your-face. I changed things up so the initial photos are a little more understated, approachable or atmospheric. I think it's a great improvement!

According to Etsy my shop's birthday is approaching, tomorrow! But I don't count September 30, 2009 as the opening day for my shop, I listed a handful of items that day and didn't pay any attention to them or my shop again for the next six months, I suppose you could call it an experimental opening. Sometime in late March 2010 I got super motivated to revisit my shop and give it an honest effort, it's been a slow process since then but growth has most certainly occurred! As you can see above I've had 43 sales, I would love to make it to 50 before the end of the year. That's only 7 more sales, not a big goal I know, but a goal none-the-less. I would also love to be introduced to some new customers, so if you feel like telling a few friends about my stuff please do! It would be much appreciated!!What's up next? Well, I've still got those crystal portraits hanging around and I would love to make a print out of my oyster shell Zen experience, but I'm feeling like having a little collage/art time in and out of my sketchbook. Things could get interesting!

dry {enough}

I printed the covers for my zine almost two weeks ago and they weren't dry enough to fold until today, and I still got a lil ink on my fingers! It could be because I used super lovely, but non-porous, hand-painted wallpaper for the stock -- or because maybe I added a little too much crisco to my ink. :/

Either way, I prolly shoulda used that drying time to print and trim the pages of the zine, buuuuuut I didn't! Maybe I'll do that today. Or maybe I'll celebrate this long awaited sunshine with a lil tequila.

snail lover

A sweet little snail lover to accompany our slug buddy.

Awwwe! Both slug + snail are linoleum block prints inspired by drawings I had made previously for my sweetie. This is the first time that I've used the carved negative space on the block for a textural effect and I really like it! I was also much more casual with the way I carved these two, I didn't over think the drawing-to-carving transition and just worked the block intuitively. I'm really happy with the result!

Both are available in my shop and so far have been a hit! Thanks guys!

slug buddy

He loves you.

And is for sale in my shop!

^ ^ ^

As you've probably noticed, I've added some pages up top; on the first you'll find choice nuggets from my past and present art journals and on the second a smattering of hand pulled prints. Go check 'em out if you haven't already! Let me know what you think!

Another print!

These words are a simple expression of the unity of our universe; found in the Chuang Tzu, the full passage reads "Heaven and earth are one attribute; the ten thousand things are one horse." The Chuang Tzu is a book of Chinese Taoist philosophy and was gifted to me by the aforementioned Elliot Knapp. Thanks, buddy! The first time I encountered Taoist philosophy was in reading the well known Tao Te Ching. The Tao or The Way of Nature, resonated with me as a deep and eternal truth that I had always known, but perhaps lost sight of for a time. Both the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang Tzu encourage us to simply let all things in the universe be as they are; to flow and find harmony as everything in Nature is allowed to be as it truly is.

Oh, and this print is for sale in my Etsy shop. :)

help.

Here's a look at the print I've been working on lately. It's coming along slowly, but it's also more ambitious than any of the other prints I've done, being a fair bit larger (6 x 9-ish) and with more complicated line work. I've gotten this far, but honestly I'm not sure where to go from here. The outline plate is finished but I would like this print to have a few layers happening, I feel it needs some color and texture in the background. Huhhhh, it exhausts me. Any thoughts?

No. 2

A second hand pulled block print, spawned in my art journal now for sale on Etsy!

death is a meal.

Yay! I finished a print and it is now the first to be for sale in my shop - forelock.etsy.com! Cool.

Printing this was real fun, and real good practice too. It started with a little type doodle in my art journal, later I found that certain images kept swimming around with those words in my head - so a print it became! I love working over a sketch then transferring it to a block for carving. And oh, how I love to carve! I find it so satisfying - it tests my patience, control, and attention to detail while also being completely self indulgent (knives! cutting!). Win - win!

The next step has been what I struggle with most so far, on and off the press. I've had this really filthy misconception about printing. I assumed that all my hard work would be done in the sketching/carving/typesetting/etc phases, so that when I was finally ready to print I'd just be able to bang 'em right out 1! 2! 3! I could not have been wronger. There is as much work in printing each image as there is in each of the previous steps. Every single image needs particular attention paid.

So here I am bubble burst + lesson learned, and all the better for it. I didn't use the press for these prints, instead I pulled each by hand so that I might pay very close attention. I used the water-soluble oil inks again (love!) cut with a little crisco. I know many people in high places are probably frowning upon this, but it just works so well! The ink + crisco has great body and stays perfectly open while I'm printing. For burnishing I used a Japanese baren and bone folder combo - the baren first for a broad even impression, next the bone folder to sharpen up the details. Next time I will have some photos of a print being pulled, or maybe even a video - that would be fun!

I am really happy with these prints, the finished product as well as the process. I can't wait to do more! To get a little back story on the text, and see more images of the print check out the listing on Etsy. I'm off to call mi madre. Happy Mother's Day all!