New Post, New Skillz

Sorry for the vacation.  Blogging felt more like an obligation recently, plus I was feeling uninspired.  But now you get something new!

I've mentioned before that I've been learning to use a printing press at a local printmaking studio.  I've been going every Monday and meeting with 3-4 other people with the stated purpose of using and promoting the letterpress machine.  However, we've decided that our "mandate" is quite broad and as long as we might eventually use it for letterpress, anything counts.  Last week, a member offered to teach the rest of us a new skill (that may come in handy for the letterpress).

So our new skill for the day was block printing.  Well, for everyone else the new skill was reductive block carving.  They all did block printing in high school and college.  I'm the newbie when it comes to all these things.

Regular block printing requires one block for each color you use.  Each block must be carved to only print the areas you want that specific color, and getting the registration (how the images from each block overlap on the print) can be tricky.  However, you can always go back and print each block to make another print.

Reductive block printing uses only one block for all the colors.  You carve the areas you need for the first color, print all the copies you want of the print, and then carve the block again for the next color.  You can never go back and print with the first block again because you've changed it.  But you use less material this way and it's easier to line up your layers.

How about a picture?

This was my first print.  I carved away everything that I wanted to stay white, then printed in red.  The inks are opaque so I can cover up the excess red(mostly).  The black lines are from the pen I used to draw the image on my material.  :(  They weren't suppsed to transfer but they did.

This is the image of the block after carving away everything that will stay red.  See the differences with the red print?  This layer will print in yellow, but on top of the already printed red.

When I printed the yellow block on top of the already printed red, this is what I got.  It's a little orange - we didn't wait for the red ink to dry, but I liked the effect anyway.  Next up will be black, and then blue.

Of course, the reality was that I screwed up the printing of the yellow layer on almost all of my red pieces, so I only have two good ones and two more layers of ink to follow.  But I have lots of pieces to practice on!  And the main purpose today was to learn the process, and in particular, how to think about seperating the colors and what order to print.  I might carve another copy of the first layer so I can print some more and have more good ones at the end.  But that is the challenge of this method - your images always line up (if you print carefully), but it is truly a limted edition.

Overall, it was a lot of fun, and I'm hoping in the next few days I can finish the print.  I'll post it when I do!

Still Here

I'm here, really I am.  Just not feeling much inspiration to blog.  My church consignment sale is this coming weekend - I've decided I really am going to say "no" if someone asks me to run it again in the fall.  I'm done - my heart isn't in it, I'm not doing a good job, I'm just burned out on it.  Time to step away - which probably means it won't happen again.  I feel bad about that, but I'm still done.

We just finished Spring Break.  We did some of the things I hoped we would, and not others, and I didn't accomplish much.  But that's OK - I caught up on a lot of sleep and talked and played with my kids, and I kind of needed that break.

So hopefully next week, with the sale over, I can post some pictures and do some things that need to get done and some that want to get done.  The weather has improved (somewhat) and that helps everything be better.

Happy Sunshine and Flowers!

Someone Has Too Much Time on their Hands



Legoland Windsor launches their royal wedding diorama (Getty Images/Dan Kitwood)



Getty Images/Dan Kitwood

I know.  It's SO cool.

The whole story, and more pictures, are here.

We Are All Connected

I'm a nerd.  I haven't worked as an engineer for 16+ years now, but it's still how I think.  I'm still fascinated by science - right now it disappoints me that JC doesn't need more help with his chemistry.

So when I checked out Knitting to Stay Sane tonight, and she had a post about "Geeking Out", I was highly amused.  And then I watched the video that she embedded.



I love this.  I love that all of these people of science - that cold, dispassionate field of study - are really REALLY passionate about what they are doing.  I miss it, a bit.

But this helps.

March Madness

I've been trying to avoid complaining about the weather.  I spend way more time than I should complaining about the weather on this blog.  So the lack of posts lately is somewhat related to this goal.

BUT.

This is just a little nuts.  John snapped this picture from the bus stop on Wednesday morning, which, may I remind you, was the 2nd full day of Spring.

Really?

We are so DONE with winter.  Even William, die-hard sled and snowball enthusiast, has been taking this as a personal affront.  "Doesn't Nature know it's SPRING?!"

So instead of planning and planting the front bed for the house, which we tore out last fall, I was scraping my car this morning.

Happy Spring.

Words to Live By

I'm a news junkie.  I'll admit it.  (Hi, my name is Ann, and I'm addicted to knowing what's going on.)  I feel very cut off and isolated even going a day without watching or listening to what's going on in the world, and our local paper isn't enough (even though I generally read almost all of it every day).

But lately?  It's a little overwhelming.  The whole Egypt thing (sorry Tunisia, we didn't get as much coverage about you), which of course segued into Bahrain and Libya and Yemen and who knows how many countries in that region.  That "little" earthquake in Christchurch, protests in Wisconsin, our own very combative governor in New Jersey (he's a jerk.  There are even some of his policies I grudgingly agree with, but the guy's a jerk).

And now Japan.

It would be heartbreaking enough to see the pictures of the aftermath of a HUGE earthquake.  Then you add on a truly biblical tsunami.  We could stop there, thank you.  I can't imagine the horrors those people are living through right now.

But no, now they have impending nuclear disaster to deal with, as well.  And while I know (here in my safe suburban intact house) that the worst case scenarios you are hearing on the media are more than a little on the sensationalized side, they are living with even more fear and uncertainty and a justifiable mistrust in what their government is telling them.

Whatever religion or higher power you believe in, or even if you don't believe, take a moment and think prayers/good thoughts for all the people struggling right now, whether in Japan or Libya or New Zealand.  I don't know that the world is more tumultuous than it was 100 years ago, but we are certainly more aware of it now.

I did receive a little ray of hope today, though.  When I was filling out the online donation form for Doctors without Borders, the captcha (security words) that came up were "ndstedi calm".

And steady calm.

Something to remember.

Maybe I Should Do This More Often

William has been home sick for three days (Sunday he woke up with a 102F fever), so he's been mostly living on the couch in our family room.  This morning, as he was looking for his shoes (which he hasn't worn in three days), he walked into the front hall and said, "Mom, why is the front hall so...clean?"

When your 9 yr old boy a) notices that something is clean and b) realizes that it's a change, I think it might be a signal to clean more often.