Linoleum Block Printing!

Good afternoon everyone!

It's been a busy and physically demanding day for me as I have been moving furniture around.... by myself ^__________^

After I married and moved out, my sister now has my room and has been in it for the past year-ish. Although it is her room now, all my stuff is there. SO! I figured since I have time, and back in town, I ought to clear out my stuff and make space for my sister. I'm suppose to wait for my husband to help me move the heavy stuff, but I got too excited and decided to start alone. I know, bad idea. I will most likely be sore tomorrow. I moved everything, except the bed, which is super duper heavy! That's a 2+ person job and I shall not break my back trying to move it.

On another note, I went to my first football game on Sunday and it was AMAZING! It was definitely a good game to attend, since the Seahawks beat the Cowboys :) We spent the morning coloring our hair and painting our faces. When we were looking for parking, we drove through the area where people have been tailgating all day and got high-fives and handshakes all around because we were decked out in Seahawks gear and super colorful. What a great time! Although, we were surrounded by Cowboys fans and they were good sports-- except for the lady right next to me; she was screaming bloody murder even when it wasn't the right time, and other Cowboys fans even turned around wondering what was going on. Crazy! When the Seahawks scored the 2nd touchdown, I was scared that she would punch me in the face @_@ I am happy she didn't.

So, on with the star of today's post! I wanted to share with you all some block prints I did a while back. All of these prints are linoleum block printing, with the exception of "Tennis" (left). When I made "Tennis" there were no more linoleum left in the class, so what I did was I took two pieces of mat board paper, glued them together and then carved on that. I think I cut myself doing that because it was really hard since I was carving on cardboard paper. After I finished carving, I covered it all in this layer of something that I can't remember the name of (this was 2006 so it's been a while). It was to make it water proof for when I washed the plate. This was my first print, and it was of my favorite sport, so I was pretty excited. I think I included 12 or 13 in this series.

The following summer (it should be summer of 2006) I made another print called "Ballerina" (above left image, top left). It was for one of my best friend's birthday (I think it was her 17th or 18th birthday). This time I used actual linoleum block. I think I included 6 in the series.

The year after (2007), for IB art year 2, I made another print using linoleum. This one was called "Let's Dance" (Above center is the plate and above right is image of a print). The cool thing about this was that I printed on wood paper. I experimented with other surfaces but my favorite was this light wood paper. I remember that it had a specific name, but once again, I've forgotten it.

I hope you enjoyed learning about my experiments with linoleum block printing! Until next time,

<3 Kara