Uninspired Days And Production

There are days when the muse is silent. I have no inspired ideas, no "next steps" on a current project. I'm sleepy and don't want to do anything.Well, as a self-employed artist, "doing nothing" is not an option. Thank goodness that there's always "production". I'm...

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Woodblock Print Intro Sale, $10

Update: This blog sale is over. Any prints that are left have gone up slightly in price and been offered to the public in my Etsy store: blossommerz.Subscribe to my blog or my Instagram feed and be the first to find out about my next...

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Borderless blocks and pressure-evening rails

Yesterday I was confronted with an issue related to printing with borderless blocks. The pressure was applied unevenly to the plates because there was no border to keep it even. Then I realized that I could add block-high supports on either side of the paper...

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Borderless blocks, first test

In an effort to keep expanding the horizons of possibility in printmaking, I'm testing the waters of a new skill - printing blocks without solid borders around the edge. This is another basic, foundational skill. When I remove the requirement to have a solid border,...

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Impatience and Earning Chops

Experience. I know from other crafts that I've learned that it's irreplaceable. And still, I want to learn at warp speed. I wish that every new skill that I try would just jump up and greet me, "Oh, hi! I wondered when you'd get here!"But...

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Better Pressure

(Those of you who are paying attention will notice that posts are showing up out of order. Yesterday's post on ink transparency got bumped up so I could send it to printmaker friends and ask for help...

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Spotty ink coverage

(For this post, I'll keep chronicling the things I try until, one fine day, I have a solution.)It's really quite clear to me that I'm still a beginner, even after four months of trial-and-error experience. Today I'm wrestling with getting good ink coverage from very...

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Controlling Plate Absorbency

It worked! Flooding the plate with shellac and hardening it with heat for a couple of days totally did the trick![Old plates with lots of absorbed ink][New plates don't absorb ink]A few days ago I tried using extra shellac on my plates and drying them...

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Scarcity and Trade Secrets

Several times I've had people ask me why I give away all of my "secrets" by writing a blog. They ask things like, "Won't that decrease the value of your work?"No, it won't. The creativity that I pour into my work is my own. The...

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Ink Problems, Plate Drying Box

I guess this is the week that my beginner's luck runs out. Remember how I've been printing color plates one after another for months, changing colors at whim? Usually, if I switch from a dark color to a light color I only need to pull...

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