Experimental Day

Today's venture was just something to while away the time. I'm waiting for a package from Dick Blicks with more print blocks and new knife with 6 blades. I'm truly anticipating the four different size blocks. Such fun and as exciting as Christmas. I recently purchased a book for inspiration. Print Workshop: Hand-printing, Techniques and Truly Original Projects by Christine Schmidt. There are perhaps 9 different print techniques included from blockprinting to cyanotype too. Of course I needed something to spark the Muse (after all that is my “project” for this blog) and I think it's doing the trick.

I felt like going a bit organic today. Taking a shoe string and wrapping it around an eraser I then added ink with a foam brush. This technique was in the book mentioned above and I'd been thinking of once again of hand making my invitations to our annual winter's feast coming up this February 13th. I did like how the patterned looked though I think I may purchase white ink and tint with blue to achieve a more wintery blue color. I'll have to see how this plays out.

The second attempt I used a block and reused the string to create a more simple pattern. Once again I like this one as well. Though I think the lines look more like they belong to barbed wire fencing than anything organic. The pattern is nice but not so for invitations.

And lastly I had an idea after taking a good look at the scraps of printing I had done. I wondered if putting them together would look like Kente cloth. You know, the squared block designs woven with silk and cotton by the people of the Ivory Coast and Ghana?

@Indigoarts.com

Below is my feeble attempt to create inked Kente cloth design using the two techniques above.

I think I'll play with this idea some more. Perhaps using a smaller grid and using more than one string so that I can have a few blocks on hand for different colors will get me closer to this ideas vision. Well today's image in the Daily Shot reflects the cold snap we're in right now. Perhaps next time I write I'll have opened up the goody box coming. I've been having multi layered block print dreams as of late. No doubt the Muse is using a gong at night.