The Japanese Garden Book Prints in Progress

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Japanese garden book prints on wall
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Today I am printing the wood block for the Japanese Garden Book. The etching press is leaving some nice marks on the pages that will be trimmed and placed one in front of the other.

It never occurred to me to clip my prints to a line until I saw it done in the studio of a print maker I follow on facebook. I always looked for flat surfaces and hoped the cat would keep off them until they dried. Such a simple solution this is. When a person works alone in the studio just doing their work, it is easy to just keep to the old ways of doing without even wondering if there is a better solution. Just keep working, keep working.

I am still not sure on the binding but at least can see how they will look when printed. Next week I will size them to just fit into their separate windows and just hope that what I see in my head can happen. Otherwise I will figure something else out.

Here are close up views as they will be paired with an extra print that may be the cover…..not sure about that yet.

 

japanese garden book page 1
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japanese garden book page2
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japanese garden book page 3
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japanese garden book cover
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Japanese Garden Wood Blocks

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Japanese Garden wood blocks
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This is what I am planning now for a limited edition of books on the new garden.

The larger blocks on the bottom will be the background image, then about 3/16″ in front will be the top image cut around to reveal the background and give the triptych a depth that will make the viewer feel like they are in the garden. It will fold out to three sections.

I plan on using my etching press to print the images and hope for some additional depth by way of deeply pressed images. And then it will be a matter of getting them cut just right and designing the book to accommodate the three sections. Then the cover material and the closure that will likely be a trimming from one of the Japanese maples out front.

If nothing else, I am learning my limitations and need for further practice, or instruction, on the craft of carving wood blocks. But the sound of the tool removing the wood is an addictive sound….scritch, scritch, scritch….something like that. More on this work as I proceed.

Next week I will write a bit about the trip for the North Carolina Soils and Conservation International Conference in Greensboro. All those watercolors I made for it are drying nicely.

And a small note on the last blog about Teaching Workshops. Some people have actually said they are flattered to be copied, others that they find it pretty disheartening, but the vast majority are like twenty-five years ago…..quite silent. But thank you to those who have at least passed it on.

 

Carving Wood Blocks

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Carving a scene series
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I am still carving small images from the garden with the hope of doing a limited edition of small books. This latest one of a lantern under a dogwood tree is not really that good. It started out the full size of 4.5″ x 4.5″ and I think there was just too much information in the image. Information that did not need to be there and I was not that fond of the background.

That is a problem with making the scene too large. All you can do aside from starting over, is continue to cut away until the subject of the image becomes the object that stands out. This was supposed to be about the lantern in moonlight under a tree…..not a lantern in a landscape that happened to have the moon shining behind a tree.

My solution was to just keep carving away until the image was much smaller, making the lantern that much larger. I am still not sure that I like it all that much. There is always the other side to carve on. There is always just tossing it out.

Now I have put it aside after photographing most of its transitions to use as a reminder to plan better in the first place.

carving the bench
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To that end I have drawn and colored in with a marker the image I want on this new block. It is easier to see how the print will look doing it this way. I will work a bit on this today and see how this plan works out. In the meantime I have enrolled in a printmaking class this fall just to pick up some ideas of how others work.

 

 

A New Series of Wood Block Prints

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Garden book iron fish print
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I have been sidetracked from breaking down old clock parts. A newly landscaped front yard has me thinking about documenting the details of the space via wood blocks and perhaps some writing for a limited edition of books. Working from the photos I took over the last month as the work progressed, I selected some of the more interesting angles and subjects. Next I altered those images to first black and white and then outlines to be redrawn with tracing paper and simplified to transfer to the blocks.

My wood of choice is poplar trimmed to six inches wide and four feet long. I pick the clearest (no knots) and straightest boards to bring home where they are cut to size. This four foot board yielded nine wood blocks measuring five and one half by five inches that I have sanded to make them easier to handle and accept the drawing transfers.

What looks good on a drawing may not necessarily work with the grain of the wood, so continuing alterations are constantly being made. It took making only three prints with the block on Thai kozo paper with re-carving where needed to get the results I wanted. And what I want is a simplistic documentation of the mood of a Japanese influenced garden. Here is the first in the series…three rusty iron carp lanterns poised by the pond’s waterfall near the front door.

Note: The piece of wood that I burnished the prints with is a wooden shoe mold found in an antique shop for five dollars. Once I picked it up and held it in my hand, I needed to own it. I have sanded, oiled and waxed this new tool that is engraved with, “Foot Form Patented.” Perhaps it was a child’s size shoe mold in an earlier life. While in my possession it will be the wood block burnishing tool.