More Linoleum Cuts!

For the last couple weeks of letterpress class, I decided I wanted to do printing on the Vandercook, since I don't have one. Which meant more linoleum prints! Here are my last two linoleum block projects:

DEER

This is meant to be a holiday card. Originally the image had stars on it, which I tried to keep on the linoleum bloc, but clumsiness marred two of the stars, so I think if I put stars on later, I will do it with some dingbats. I had wanted to do a silver or gold originally, but since in class we have to share the machine, we agreed on a metallic copper color (PMS 8560). It came out beautifully on the light blue card, and the color was gorgeous on my friend Carrie's blush colored card as well (she had a linoleum cut of a french bulldog sillhouette). I made a matching envelope for this that I haven't had a chance to photograph yet.

AUSTRALIAN SHEPHERD
Romeo was jealous of the fact that I made a card with Jezebel on it, I carved an image of an Australian shepherd and printed it. I had wanted to do it in a blue or grey color to match Romeo, but brown was the color of the day on the Vandercook, so brown it was! The fine lines on this came out really well, and I'm very pleased with how it looks. I use a number of different Exacto blades for the fine lines, but I know some people just use the regular carving tools and they come out just dandy.

I am going to attempt to print linoleum blocks on my Golding in the near future, in between these wedding projects. I've gotten pieces of advice on how to do this. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Linoleum Cuts = Cute Letterpress

Over the last couple months, I've been working on linoleum cuts to print in letterpress class. I think everyone has their own method of carving linoleum blocks, but I found that linoleum blocks, while they can be carved by a fifth grader, should be carved with great caution and care. Everyone I've talked to seems to have nicked themselves in some way carving linoleum blocks. It's not the most precise way to get an image, but a lot cheaper than having a plate made. I've also found it fun and challenging to carve linoleum blocks. At least it keeps my hands agile. I'm not the most dexterous, and I've seen awesome linoleum cuts in class, but here are my linoleum cuts thus far. I have to say, they're pretty cute.

My first attempt was a bee (fans of Pooh will recognize this particular bee). I carved this three times before I got it right, and nicked myself more than once. It was my first time carving linoleum blocks! For those who like to know these sorts of things, the paper above is luxe frost from Paper Source.

Inspired by my cat Jezebel, I based this cut off of a block print I saw somewhere. This was printed the same day the bee was. This was my second successful linoleum cut. I have to say, I LOVE this linoleum cut way more than I did the bee. It has cleaner lines. It's printed on a white Fabriano card.

This is the most intricate linoleum cut I've carved yet. I wanted to do something Asian-inspired(actually I wanted to do a phoenix but that's way more intricate the koi I finally settled on). I saw this koi image somewhere and attempted to carve it, but my hands got tired by the time it got to the scales. I'm not sure if I want to redo this carving or not, as it took a really really long time, and this one looks pretty good, despite the mistakes on the koi on the right. This is orange ink printed on Arturo blue (same as the "Many Thanks" card...made in the same run).