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More On The Wood Block Experiments

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I always loved these two pieces by famous wood block printer Fannie Mennen. I bought them years ago when they came up for sale out of the collection of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild and had them framed together. The quote by Christopher Morley is perfect for me and even more appropriate now when I get so little time in the studio. And isn’t her owl wonderful! There is a glare as these are behind glass and there was not much I could do about the reflections.

So this is the progression of what I started last week. First the plain block prints.

And pulling out an older small block of a similar scene.

Next I tried chine colle on some of them.

Then I stuck on some fabrics because I knew it would shift too much if I tried the cloth as a chine colle.

Notice the mottled paper used on some of them. It is the paper that I hand marbled using my earth pigments from right here at home. It is a simple process.

First get your pigments into a fine powder by sifting. Then put some in a jar with boiled linseed oil and add enough mineral spirits to make the solution very watery. After you have all your colors in separate jars and have put in a feather or group of tied grasses/sticks into each jar, then prepare a large open container like a deep cookie sheet or lasagna pan by filling half way with a thin solution of corn starch (or corn flour as it is called in Australia) and water. It should be a very thin paste so make it about one part corn starch to eight parts water.

When the corn paste is level in the pan splatter with the earth pigments by flicking your brush. Do not try to mix them around to make a pattern as it will only muddy them. Just be happy with the spots inside spots.

Then lay a piece of paper on the mixture starting with one corner and carefully dropping it as to not trap air. Pull up, rinse and let dry. It may take a while for the linseed oil and mineral spirits odors to evaporate, but the results are worth it.

And finally the stitching.

These were fun to do and I think I might just have them framed. The paper I printed the blocks onto is a thai kozo that I use to spin paper threads. The threads were one third of the six threads in embroidery floss. And oh yes, because I wanted to reinforce the paper after stitching I backed it with an iron on facing used in sewing.

Bits of my old pajamas were used in that top one.  Pajamas I made from fabrics I bought from a local warehouse that only handled scraps from textile industries that have long left the state of North Carolina. The man who managed the old barn of a store had the kind of a southern accent that could readily read southern novels and make you glad he did.

Anyway he said that there was no telling what the fiber content was and we were to just take our chances. These felt like a smooth Egyptian cotton so I could not put the cloth down once I held it. Besides it was super cheap.

You could also use a large scoop to dip into an old washing machine full of assorted buttons at a dollar a scoop. I still have so many of those that I would carefully dip my scoop around to fill up with more of what I liked.

The framer called me today to say that the frame for the long travels in Australia piece came in with a crack in the wood. They are sending a new one and I won’t get the finished work til next week. No worries, I will get it eventually.

Not much else new. Except this from the makers of Saunders Malt Extract.

Good Morning Sandy, Thank you for your email,

Unfortunately we do not export Saunders Malt, so it sounds like you have been very lucky purchasing from Amazon.

I am sorry I cannot be of more help so you can continue to make your delicious Cookies.

Regards, Angela.

Personally I think Angela could have just sent me a case but no, not happening. I have put my name on a list at Amazon in case some of this wonderful elixir comes in.

Til next time.

 

Another Few Days Later

Posted on by Sandy Webster

This is the new appetizer from my birthday dinner out. It is a sort of a taco thing with some fish….believe me it was more fun for the chef to make than for me to eat. But at least I can say I had dinner out and got a card from the chef….plus a nice cabernet sauvignon, with salmon on ceasar, followed by a nice crunchy chocolate gelato. Next year I will go for something different.

Also I did carve a white line block and made a print….a print I don’t much like.

It was hard to get white lines around all the Japanese maple leaves and have the image not have too much white. I did not like the print. So now I have turned the block over and am re-carving to make a relief print using black ink. It is a similar scene but not so much detail and some texturing to get a more interesting background than the the white line one. I just drew directly on the board.

When I finish carving I will do a test print and see how it goes from there.

Also this past week I took Lee around to another end of the dam area so he could see where we walk from across the water. He loved the view.

I used to take my students in pigments classes out to this spot to gather colors when the water was down and lots of coast was accessible.

And just this morning I tried to order more of my Saunders Malt Extract from Amazon. They don’t have it! So I found their facebook page and wrote them a message that I could not find a place in the US to get their product and I was getting dangerously close to the end of the can. I also told them that I thought the reason I could not find it on Amazon was because I posted the picture of the can with my recipe trials on my blog. And because so many people must have wanted to try “The Almost Best Malted Cookie I Ever Ate” that Amazon has run out.

Hopefully they will exchange a few cans for the recipe. One can only hope. In the meantime if you see this available anywhere but Australia, I would be grateful to know where.

Til later.

Being Home

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I planned on having loads of sunflowers this year. Filled two beds with seeds but as soon as they showed their leaves the deer helped themselves. Now I have two beds full of cropped sunflower stems with weak looking leaves sprouting and a whole lot of weeds. Sunflowers are my favorite flower. They take over a professional bouquet just by being in the bunch. I can sometimes find them three to a bunch and three bunches for $10 at the grocery store. If they are not too sagging I will buy them all. Then I like to fill in the jug with whatever greenery from around the yard that the deer have not eaten.

The other day I decided to make cookies and went back to the “second best malted cookies I ever ate” recipe. This time I put a bit too much golden syrup in because you know how it is when the bottle has just a bit more and not worth saving til later, so you keep upending it and adding it to the mixture. Anyway a bit more flour and I could handle the dough enough to get it into the balls to roll into sugar before baking.

But this time I remembered what the baker of the best malted cookie I ever ate told me. “Keep it in the oven on low to make them crispy.” So after they were baked the amounted time and including the slamming to make cracks. After cooling I turned them all over and put them back on the parchment and into an oven that had been turned off. They stayed there for about another half hour, then came out and cooled completely to become “very close to the best malted cookie I ever ate”. They are so, so crispy!

And in the last two days I had time to revisit  white line wood block printing. Australia has been on my mind as everyone there is waiting for the programs to come out….and I won’t be on offer for next year.  So I finished my chest that holds all the thank yous from students over the years and then made this print again of Halls Gap.

And the block and print.

Not sure what to work on next. I think I will make a drawing for another white line print, but have it be something from around here in my own yard. Perhaps the Japanese stone lantern out front with a drooping branch of a Japanese maple and some hostas  that the deer haven’t eaten.

I can do the drawings upstairs while sitting with Lee and then come down to the studio to do the carving and printing. The tools and paints and papers are calling me. And they are just getting louder now that I have cleaned the studio out and got myself a bit organized down there.

I am still waiting for the grave digger. It has been rainy all week and to be honest he is not the most dependable digger I know. So we will see what next week brings. A hole or the yellow pages to find another man with a machine.

Next week I should have the long panel back from the framers.

Til later.

Being a Teacher Again

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I worked on this box yesterday while letting a private student carry on with her first foray into dry point etching. The box holds every single one of the gifts and thank yous from Australian students over the years. It is 17″ x 11″ x 4.5 inches. Today I will try to figure out the lid and extra support for the base.

It was so good having someone in the studio asking questions for the last two days. She made the field journal exactly like the one I made….only hers is a lovely slate grey and sports a beautiful raku porcelain button I had in my stash. I did not photograph it…just got busy.

She also brought along her XCut XPress to try out while learning how to make her first etching print. I gave her a small  plate much like the one I use for my own etchings and told her to draw an image the same size as the plate. I showed her an older one of mine.

It took her the entire afternoon to adjust the etching and the inking to get something close to what she expected. I think she is going to love making small prints.

Not only did she make the field journal/box and learn how to do drypoint, but she took notes continually on whatever I was saying. We problem solved a binding issue on one of her artist books, discussed free computer programs that I use to adjust photographs of my artwork, and talked and talked. Her husband also suffers from dementia and sharing stories helped a lot. It was good for both of us and I look forward to her returning.

Demonstrating how I can change photographs with a simple program, I was reminded how much the purpose of piece of work can change its meaning. It can go from tactile object to the ghost of an illustrated idea for words.

Like this…

To this…

Doesn’t this second image talk to you about holding things together? Unraveling? Marks of age? It makes me want to put the feelings into words and will likely end up illustrating a poem. Wouldn’t it also make a great cover for a personal journal?

It would be easy to get completely wrapped up in making images like this on the computer. But then they just become manipulated pictures….anyone can do that. But having this essence of something you made by hand that shows your own way of making a mark seems to capture the soul of what you were thinking while engaged in the creating. It deserves to be thought about, written about, explored more deeply than just an interesting image.

Don’t you agree?

Anyway I will share what I write about it. And also show the finished Australian Gift Box in another post.

Til later.