I had great hopes for getting much printmaking done last week.  I had the idea for a new multi-coloured reduction linocut all sketched out.  Before Christmas I had been having some problems with my printing ink, but I thought I had figured a workaround.  These water soluble Daniel Smith inks worked wonderfully last summer and fall.  You can clean them up with soap and they are waterproof when dry so I can add watercolour. I loved them!  However, when I started printing my Christmas cards they started going all blotchy.  I couldn't figure it out.

You can see from the photo below.  The first test print is on the left and as I kept printing I started getting the horrible blotchy look on the right. I ended up using my old Speedball ink to make the cards.  After much research I couldn't find anyone who had experienced this problem before.  Why did these inks work beautifully in the summer but not in the winter?  The only complaint I'd ever read about them was that they dried too slowly.   Hmmmm,  That wasn't a problem for me.  In fact, I found they dried overnight.....

That's when it dawned on me.  My hair is now straight not wavy... I need hand cream or my hands look like I've aged 30 years...  Of course!  The air in my house is dryer than the Sahara Desert!  I thought I could just mist the ink with a spray bottle between printings.  So I started my new print but unfortunately the ink started to dry on the plate before I got 2 test prints done!  In frustration I threw the Daniel Smith ink into a plastic bag and they will have to wait until spring.  I've ordered some Caligo Safe Wash inks and I hope they get here soon because I'm itching to get on with this print!  I've used the black Caligo before, in winter, and never had this problem. I used the Caligo to print a few more of my "Inside Out" linos on larger sheets of lovely BFK paper.  After much experimenting with this lino, I think I like it plain the best, without any background.  I'll get these photographed and into my Etsy shop soon!

I'm looking forward to a new year of carving and inking.  My first print this year is a little valentine print which comes in black, pink and blue ink.  The pink and blue ones I made into cards.  I added a little Inktense pencil to highlight the girl.  I don't usually do cards for the on-line market because they are a lot of work for little money.  I'm selling these in my Etsy at two for $12US so it's a bargain : D

As always, I learn a lot from doing.  Next time I make cards I'm going to save myself so much time by printing directly on printmaking paper so I don't have to do so much cutting and taping!  The print in these is attached with acid free double sided raised photo tabs.  (Try saying that 3 times fast!)

I also learned that the terrible trouble I was having printing my Christmas cards was due to the very dry air cause by our furnace.  A little spritz of water between printings works wonders.

I think this little girl comes from my flying and floating dreams.  I don't get many of them.  I wish I could control what I dream about.  I'd be able to practise my flying if I could!

I really should be working on my Christmas cards, but I just finished a new collagraph print. There's nothing quite so exciting as finishing a print when it starts as an idea and some bits of cardboard.   This is big for me,  a little over 10 by 10 inches and hand tinted with watercolour.  Collagraphs are made by taking bits of cardboard or other materials and varnishing them, then applying ink and printing.  It's a fairly simple process that can achieve an amazing variety of results.  I have 3 others to paint.  None of them will end up looking quite like this one.  

But I really should get back to those cards.

Bear in There
by Shel Silverstein

There's a Polar Bear
In our Frigidaire--
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there--
That Polary Bear
In our Fridgitydaire.





This print was originally design for the Georgina Art Centre Juried show which challenged artists to create a piece inspired by poetry.  Loving all things silly,  I choose "Bear in There" by Shel Silverstein.  However, while carving this print, I couldn't help but think about polar bears today and the shrinking of the sea ice.  Suddenly the silly poem took on another more serious dimension.  The bears are hungry and trapped like my bear in the fridge.   It's interesting how art often says more than the artist intended.

I've finally finished my house linoprint and called it Inside Out.  I've been thinking about how we collect and store things safely in our homes, like squirrels with our nuts.  However, it's all very ephemeral.  Even if no
horrible natural disaster befalls us, our houses will someday crumble and our things will disperse.  It's odd because our homes seem so solid.

I used my new mangle (clothes wringer)  to print most of these.  It works surprisingly well!

I'm starting a new lino print involving the idea of home and what it means to us.  I recently saw pictures of the abandoned automotive factories and houses in Detroit and was amazed.  We build these structures and boxes to keep us safe... to help us survive, but they are so temporary.  I sometimes think of all the little things we keep in our houses that we don't even think about.  Someday all our carefully organized items will blow away or maybe they'll end up in a museum, but the structures we create won't last.  I once heard a  lecture from a scientist who had a stroke which temporarily wiped out the left side of her brain.  Although she couldn't speak, she felt as if all barriers were gone and she was one with everything.  Everything was just flowing molecules.   The impermanence and artificiality of the walls  we put up fascinates me.  Are they cages or defenses?  Are they personal or public?
I don't really know where this is going, but I haven't blogged in a while and it's good to write down my thoughts.
Maybe by the time I finish carving this  I'll have a grand idea... but probably just more questions.

I'm always on the lookout for new techniques and I recently  found one that made me drop my carving tools (temporarily!) and pick up my exacto knife.  The effects looked so amazing that I had to give it a try right away.  This technique is only new to me.  It's actually been around for years and is called "Pochoir" which is french for stencil.    I've used masks and stencils before, but never like this!  The inspiration came from a youtube video I found on Pinterest and below is the video.
On the right are the pieces of bristol board that I cut out to use as masks. These are then inked, put on a piece of acrylic, covered with paper and then put in the press.  I was very pleased with the way my jack bottle press performed.   I used midcentury modern shapes to create these monoprints which I call, "Chillin".  I picture this girl chillin at home with her cat, her lava lamp and her tunes in her ultra chic mid century modern way.  I get so excited when I'm trying something new that I make lots of mistakes.  Luckily no one was home to hear the screams from my basement studio when I filled a giant tub with water to soak my paper only to find it had a huge crack in the bottom.  Water spilled everywhere and flowed under the washing machine where apparently a huge spider lived.  He emerged probably more scared than I, and with good reason because he is no more.  Given all the excitement it's a little strange that I called this print Chillin.  Hopefully the final prints do not convey my fear of spiders or the frenzy of enthusiasm which was me as I rolled ink and tore blotted newsprint everywhere.  I am definitely going to try this technique again, perhaps in a calmer more organized state of mind.  I emerged with 6 new prints.  They are all different.  After the sixth print, the bristol board was starting to disintegrate so there will never be any more of this particular edition.  These will be for sale in my Etsy store as soon as I can get them uploaded.

My poor neglected site has had a makeover.  I've gone from white to black.  I felt it needed a change after so many weeks of being ignored.  It wasn't that I wasn't doing any art.  It was just that when I'm creating and working at my part-time job, I tend to put this website on the back burner.  I hope you like the new look.  I'm sure I'll be tinkering with it endlessly.   However, in the hopes of getting something uploaded, I'm forging ahead.

Here are some of my newest prints!  I always look at them afterwards and think of ways I would like to change them. This can drive me crazy!  I could work on one theme or idea for years, but I have too many other ideas that I would like to start.  So, like this website, sometimes I just have to move on.  All of these are now listed in my Etsy shop and I have more on the way which I will share soon.  I've missed this blog.  I'll try and not leave it  for so long again.

When I was little, I could always imagine little worlds, towns, houses in all the mundane things around me.  Some rocks by the road could be a troll village.  An old stump could be someone’s home.  Perhaps, when I’m not looking the breakfast table comes alive!  Now that I’m older I try to recapture that way of thinking.  I think something is lost when we stop being able to imagine things in different ways.  And so, my fork has become a sort of elk, a slice of tangerine is the sun and more forks have become trees.


I've been experimenting with different techniques, layering ink, different papers  and in this print I added some watercolour.  I could never do this before with the Speedball inks unless I used oil based ink which was a pain to clean off the plate.  But my Daniel Smith inks are set when dry so I can paint over them.  Yay!