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…