Tuesday, August 25, 2015

DIY: Printmaking Made Easy

I mightah told y'all that when I was a kid, I was addicted to attending Vacation Bible Schools. I didn't care what the denomination, all I needed to know was: Will there be Barrel Drink and will there be Macaroni Art? 
The school I attended didn't have art class so my only experience in arts -n- craftin' came in the form of a lil Bible learning and a whole lotta popsicle stick art (you shoulda seen my popsicle stick Noah's Arc, y'all. Best o' Show.) As an adult (if that's what you wanna call me), this translates into me being addicted to taking art classes around town. Luckily for me, our local art museum The Frist always has the best of offerings...even if they forgot to serve Barrel Drank. 
The Frist doesn't have a permanent collection and I think that's pure genius because it means no stale art that's been hanging for years. It's an ever-changing canvas of art history, culture and contemporary art that keeps locals like me coming back. One exhibit they currently have is the work of Jaume Plensa (that's his surreal sculpture there) whose work is phe-nom-in-alll. 

The last class I took at The Frist was the awesome hat making workshop where I made my donut hat! And I'm excited that I'll be leading a workshop at The Frist on needle felting soon. But enough about that, let's talk about these two wild -n- crazy guyzzz: 
Meet Nieves Uhl and Chris Cheney, owners of the letterpress and design studio Sawtooth Print Shop! Both met at Hatch Print Show and opened their place about three years ago. Not only do they offer their design services and prints but they also offer classes (guess who is dying to sign up for that?! GUESS). Sadly, as you can tell by the photo above, they are both entirely too serious to be any ounce of fun. 

Bwaha, I kid! I loved 'em so! I mean, how could I not when what comes out of their studio are masterpieces like this: 
You better believe I whipped out my credit card and purchased this beauty. It now hangs proudly in the Masterpiece Gallery in the art room!
 So Chris and Nieves carve on linoleum blocks. Which is pretty hard to do for us newbies. So we worked on Softoleum which was like carving in butter. We began by copying our design onto our blocks. 
Graphite paper worked well for this but several attendants found that simply rubbing the back of our pencil design very firmly easily copied the design onto our surface. Who knew? Well, apparently several folks did. One of them NOT being me. 
I didn't take printmaking in college (a regret. One of the many.) so my only experience was a woodblock carving print-stint in high school. Which sucked. Wood carving is for beavers, y'all. But this stuff I loved because of the easy which you could carve into it. Not to mention that if you don't carve too deep can you flip it over and carve on the backside! So filling up my virtual shopping cart with these bad boys. 
I'm on this Tiki kick. So that was my inspo. I'm dying to print these Tiki blocks onto the bottom of a dress or a skirt kinda like I did here one million years ago. 
Tho, I gotta tell ya, I'm not as in love with this block. Hence the reason my virtual shopping cart is loaded down with s'more blocks. 
I did treat my paper before printing. Instead of using white paper, I rolled a lil gold and a lil blue onto several sheets before printing my blocks. 
I wanna host a Tiki Party just so's I can send these out as invites! But what does one DO at a Tiki Party? Aside from drink fancy barrel drinks with umbrellas? 
I attended this class with a coupla art teacherin' buddies who made the cutest of prints! Check out my friend Virginia's portrait of her dog and my buddy David's Mickey-inspired print as well as his sailor-themed print of his last name. I have smart artsy friends, y'all. 
But, seriously, what made the class so special was our awesome host Rosemary Brunton and our instructors Nieves and Chris! Can't wait til the next class, I'm already signed up (um. Actually, I think it's my class. So, never mind)!
 photo signature_zpsd10b3273.png

10 comments:

  1. Cassie, I look forward to to seeing what you post and wonder to myself, "How does she do ALL that she DOES?!"
    So flippin' passionate! Thanks for sharing with us.
    p.s. I wanna come to your Tiki Party !!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hahahahahahaha!!!!! Addicted to VBS for the barrel drinks and macaroni art!!!!!!!!!!! Love it! jan

    ReplyDelete
  3. Where can I print 8x10 cheap in Toronto?
    print shop

    ReplyDelete
  4. You have some honest ideas here. I done a research on the issue and discovered most peoples will agree with your blog.
    Star Wars Prints

    ReplyDelete
  5. You're so talented in writing. God is truly utilizing you in tremendous ways.
    3d Printing

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really appreciate your blog and i bookmark it and will again read it.
    Offsetdruck Hamburg

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, thank you!! You live in one of my favorite places! We love Germany!!

      Delete
  7. I have read many blogs in the net but have never come across such a well written blog. Good work keep it up
    Digital Printing for Mutoh

    ReplyDelete
  8. I wanted to thank you for this great blog! I really enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.
    toronto photocopiers

    ReplyDelete
  9. When you teach this, show us your actual set up in the room!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for your comments. I appreciate each and every one :)

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.