Woodblock and Stencils

I’m currently preparing for my class and residency with Karen Kunc at Constellation Studios in Lincoln, Nebraska. She is an incredible woodcut printmaker who uses a few “simple” techniques to create spectacular work. (You can see some of the amazing work that she creates with these techniques HERE.)

In order to get the most out of my time with her, I have been practicing everything that I know we’ll be covering. This is my first test of using craft paper stencils to isolate areas of the block for selective inking. This set of plates is pretty simple, they are the positive and negative of each other, giving complete coverage of the block between the two of them. The trick that I tested here was to create a set of stencils that matched the block and gave me enough wiggle room to roll the ink on consistently without getting it in other areas. As you can see, without stencils, rolling ink onto some of the “tiles” without hitting others would be impossible.