I finally started the carving process. In fact, it goes pretty quickly with the fairly simple designs I have so far. And they’re all small, approximately 4″x6″.

I bought 3 different materials to carve, all made by Speedball: 1) the traditional lino block (linoleum mounted to a wooden block); 2) Speedy Cut block (off white, rubber/eraser-like substance); and 3) Speedy Carve block (pink rubber/eraser-like material). The Speedy Cut is a slightly smaller block – 4″x5.5″ which required some modification to the design so it would fit. There’s one more, similar product, made by Utrecht that I haven’t tried yet. In fact, it was a Utrecht article I read that turned me on to try block printing, in the first place. They seem to carry a variety of sizes that are mounted and unmounted. More research left to do!

Carving the rubber/eraser-like blocks was the easiest for me. However, it’s easy to gouge out sections of the rubber and cut way deeper than you need. I’m not sure how that will affect the printing. Carving the lino block was harder for me to control the cuts. Perhaps that’s because I had forgotten the TIP: heat up the lino block with an iron before starting to carve. Since I hadn’t done that, the blade would occasionally skip away from me and nick an edge or two (and my finger once). However, once I had the design roughly cut out, I had a much easier time carving down further.

At this point, I have carved a design into each of the materials. I probably like the pink stuff the most. I also noticed that the white, Speedy Cut block seemed to flake as I worked with it. Almost felt like pieces were disintegrating, to a degree. I don’t know that this material will last as long as the other two once I start printing.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Sorry about that. Winter has been a struggle here in PA, as in many other areas in the northeast. I haven’t been out shooting very much which tends to make me cranky. But I did make it to the Flower Show in Philadelphia with my family and took a lot of point-and-shoot photos, which felt great.

I will soon embark on a new artistic endeavor, known by several names: block printing, lino printing, and relief printing. It’s all the same thing, as far as I can tell. Think of it as creating your own rubber stamps to create art. I’m still gathering supplies and ideas right now. I bought a handle, carving blades and a few practice pieces. Ordered an actual starter kit that has a tube of black ink, the rubber roller to spread the ink (called a brayer), an inking tray, another handle and some duplicate carving blades. With two handles and multiple blades, I won’t have to switch blades constantly, just which handle I’m using. It seemed like a good idea.

I’m pretty excited but also a bit intimidated by it as I never considered myself much of an “artist.” Drawing and creating from scratch doesn’t come easily to me. I’ve seen some work online by incredibly talented (and patient) artists using this printing process. Their designs can get quite intricate. I plan to start off slowly and on a small scale, building up from there. Perhaps creating some collages, in addition to single subject prints.

I’ve been bugging a coworker for information, suggestions, and general thoughts. Hopefully she wasn’t too annoyed with all of my beginner questions. I’ve been told this gets pretty messy and I’m not ready for that just yet. But since I don’t have the ink or anything to print, I have time to prepare and gather newspapers to cover the table (and floor underneath).

We’ll see where this goes. Stay tuned…

The poster has arrived! It’s really cool to see it in print. Available directly through the Mt. Airy Learning Tree (MALT), you can drop by their office on Greene Street in Mt. Airy and pick one up immediately. They’re also being sold at the Weavers Way Coop and through my website.

They are $20 each, and half of that goes directly to MALT’s Make This Our Home building fund. They are looking to raise about $230,000 to buy the building where their offices have been for the last 10 years. This is a great community organization so if you have any ties to Mt. Airy, or know somebody who does, get them this poster as a gift.

The “Signs You’re In Mt. Airy” poster is almost ready to be printed! I had to make a few revisions to the initial design. It seems I had confused a boundary and included several businesses that weren’t in the city, let alone in Mt. Airy. Those had to be removed and replaced with others. I had some help along the way from the staff at the Mt. Airy Learning Tree, providing suggestions and even securing a large “Mt. Airy Philadelphia” sign in their office. I had, in fact, found a similar sign still attached to a telephone pole near my childhood home and that is the one on the poster. Another friend of mine reminded me of the license plate with a smiley face and “I like Mt. Airy” written on it. So I went in search of a car with one of those plates. Wouldn’t you know there were 3 cars on my old block with that plate!

The poster will be proofed and approved in the next week or so. Then on to the printer and shipped back to Mt. Airy Learning Tree and available for sale.

Thank you to all who have provided support and suggestions throughout this project!

I grew up in Mt. Airy, a neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia. It’s close to center city yet feels very suburban. It’s a progressive area with one of the country’s oldest co-op markets, Weavers Way, and wonderfully integrated. Our block was quiet enough to ride my bike in the street; there was room to run and play behind the house; it’s very family friendly.

My latest project was born out of something I was doing for work. We’re co-sponsoring a photo contest of Mt. Airy to use the winning images in a 2010 desk calendar. Sales of this calendar will benefit (modestly) a local organization where “neighbors teach neighbors,” the Mt. Airy Learning Tree (MALT). MALT has just started a capital campaign to buy their building, trying to raise $230,000 by next September. I was out on the main street, visiting businesses to promote the contest. I had my own camera with me and started to photograph the business signs. I was thinking about a collage for the calendar cover.

A few days went by and I was continuing to promote the photo contest and photographing business signs. I hit upon a great idea – create a collage of these signs – business and otherwise and sell a poster to help MALT raise more money toward their goal. I’ve worked on the collage for the past several days, using 86 images of different signs from around Mt. Airy. Today I had a version to share with the director of MALT. We’ve been emailing back and forth about pricing, how much of that would go to MALT, and how best to promote the poster to sell a bunch.

Although not quite ready to make that announcement, we’re very close to making this all public. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here’s the poster as it stands right now.