heart labyrinth

Since I started this blog, I think I have only ever really done one linoleum block print for a Day of the Dead swap. I just paint more and do other crafting. But block printing, like stamp cutting, is something that is easy, versatile and fun. So, I thought I would show you the process with this project I did today.

For some background on this project, I was invited to a baby shower/blessingway for a friend of mine and received this in the mail.

The instructions were that each person coming to the baby shower would create a prayer flag, which would be strung together to help my friend during labor and birthing. Traditionally, Tibetan prayer flags are hung outside with prayers that are carried on the wind to God, or the gods, or the universe. Prayers for peace and the end of suffering. The flag is supposed to wear away, remain open to the elements, meaning your prayer would be answered when the flag is gone. For this blessingway, the idea is to write a prayer, positive message, and/or a loving powerful image for the pregnant woman to use as strength and love for birth. Each person does one to surround her with love and positive images. I loved the idea and immediately began thinking about what to do for her.

I've been thinking about labyrinths a great deal lately. I wrote about it on my other blog recently. In a birthing class I took while pregnant with Beezus, we drew labyrinths as a kind of power image to use during birth. Labor is like a labyrinth, we were told. You go in and though it is a long, winding, seemingly arduous path, you always find a way to the center and back out again. Though it seems to be a maze, you aren't tricked, there is no cleverness, you will get to the end.

I decided to do a labyrinth for my prayer flag. I am really drawn to the Native American labyrinth pattern, which has a more organic and less geometric look to it. Labyrinths are in cultures all over the world, so there are many different designs.

I drew this. Then I decided, as I was turning it around and around that it might look cool as a block print. And then as I was staring at it and thinking it looked like a brain, I thought I might transform it into a heart-shaped labyrinth, since labor is an arduous journey of love.

Creating a linoleum block print is really easy, but does require some equipment. All very reasonably priced and long lasting, so a little investment for a long pay-off. If you are so inclined. Linoleum block printing is one way to make a print. I did watch a Martha Stewart one morning where she did a print on a potato, then stamped it in fabric paint and made cool onesies. So, once you buy the stamp/block cutting tools, you can basically carve anything. I choose linoleum because it lasts a hell of a lot longer than a potato and I can make multiple prints, wash the linoleum in water, and use another color.

First thing to know is that printing is a reverse process, so if you are doing letters, mirror flip them. I drew my design right on my block. First in watercolor pencil, so I could erase with water, then I went over it in sharpie.

The drawing is the guideline. I am going to take the linoleum off the entire block EXCEPT my design. I am making a stamp, basically. This one is 8.5" x 5". My husband used a table saw to trim my block (later in the process). You can buy the tools to remove the linoleum at Michael's or AC Moore, both of which have printing materials, including blocks and ink and all the equipment. Speedball makes a cheap, totally fine, lino block tool set for ten bucks. Blocks vary in price, but are about five to ten bucks a piece. Again, you can cut them to suit your needs.

The block cutting tools I use are made my Speedball. And have different sizes of blade, which are stored in the handle. They are hella sharp, and I have cut myself a number of times. Practice before doing an intricate design. It isn't terribly difficult, but it does take a certain understanding of how much pressure and counter pressure to use and where to put your other hand. I have slipped, especially early on and skidded across my block and into my hand. It wasn't pleasant. Some people use a vice, but I like to move my block around.

I always start by creating the edge of my print first. Then the long, large areas.I do that for a number of reasons. One is that if I do slip and skid across my project, you usually stop at a gutter. Usually. Not always, but usually. I generally leave a huge field to cut around my project only so I can reorient myself to cutting the linoleum before I get into my design. Many people trim all block but the design. That is a good way to do it.

This is a very meditative process. Cutting and drinking coffee/tea. Cutting and drinking coffee. I also listen to music I can sing to.

 After finishing the entire surrounding area, I hunker down for the intricate design of the inside heart. I am cutting out everything but the black marker.

 This part is the difficult part. It takes patience, rather. It isn't difficult, but it is easy to slip and cut straight through the rest of your design, which would be bad. No repairing the gone linoleum. Here is my design, you can see the linoleum bits in a pile behind the block. As you can see, by this cross section above, linoleum block is a wood block with a relatively thin piece of linoleum on top. You can buy just the linoleum. And if you are so inclined, you can do this same exact thing on wood. Wood does come off differently because of grain and nooks and crannies, so it takes a lot more skill than I possess. Linoleum doesn't seem thin when you are carving, but then you hit wood here and there, and it feels thin. Pressure is important. Deep cuts will absorb less ink. Shallow cuts will pool your ink and make your print look muddy. But it is a way to create shadowing and detail by playing with cutting depth. This project was very straightforward for what was cut and what wasn't.

 Next step is to ink the bad boy. I use block printing ink for block printing. It seems like a no-brainer, but I have tried paint. It doesn't work. This is water soluble, and comes off easily. That is why I choose it. I think a brayer is an essential piece of equipment in an artist studio. It is so immensely useful for creating texture, background, printmaking, and all kinds of stuff. I use mine often. Very often. I used this little sushi dish to spread ink today, but usually I use a butcher pan I inherited from my step father. After spreading the ink evenly over your brayer, you then ink your block print. Try to roll evenly and do a number of rolls to cover all the parts of your design. This is why cutting depth is so important. As you can see in my picture, all the parts that are red are ink, so in the field, there is some reds. That is the high points of my cuts. I like that look. It gives a cool design element. Block prints want some of that, but too much and it looks sloppy.

The difference in stamp making and print making is that you move the stamp and with block printing, you move the paper. There are machine to help you print, but I use me. I am La Machina. But it takes a steady, delicate, yet strong touch. After inking, you place the paper on top. It is important to make sure you know where you want the image on your paper first, line it up, and lay it evenly. You cannot drag your paper into place after you lay it on top of the block, obviously, or paint will drag across your paper. Also resist the urge to jiggle it into place. Just place it and step away. Now grab your barren.

That is the barren, the thing on top of the white paper. It helps give you a nice even pressure on your design. When you use your fingers, you can easily press your paper into the crannies of your design, giving it ink where ink ain't supposed to be. Each print will be different. There is no helping it. Now, when you lift your paper, lift is straight up. Don't drag. Don't touch. Don't pull it. I actually pull at opposite corners in.

 Practicing with the print, I made these cards. While I like the design, the red ink makes it look a little placental, which is just not my style. So I tried mixing blue, green, yellow, and silver inks to create a cool new color of teal-ish sparkly goodness.

 This is how it turned out on the prayer flag.

 And this is the shitload of prints I did tonight on different papers, like origami paper, cardstock, watercolor paper, marker paper and just plain old colored stock.

 Hope you liked this tutorial, and if you think the design is too weird, tell me. I have a few weeks before the shower!

v.d. t.p. f.y.i.s

In the last few weeks, perhaps because I find so many brilliant crafts for children on Pinterest which leads me to  blogs I have not seen and crafty mamas working with toddlers, I have been keeping our toilet paper cardboard rolls for crafts. It's not that this hasn't occurred to me before, but I just couldn't think of anything cool to make with them. I found these very cool yetis made with toilet paper rolls.

After I did the birds on a wire, I was thinking that toilet paper rolls might be cool candle holders. So Beezus and I kind of brainstormed. Beezus rushed headlong into hers, but I wanted to plan it a little more.  More on Beezus' craft in a bit. The candle holder was a fun one.

As you can see below, I cut a heart out of the roll and kept a strip to hold up the heart. Then I cut another heart out of the center of the original heart. Using kite paper and newspaper, I mod podged newspaper print on the cardboard. Using kite paper, I glued the transparency onto the inside of the heart. That is my pre-newspapered heart there on the messy desk.

After everything dried, I then cut the back in a snip.

I have many yarzheit candles for Lucy, so I used one of those.

I then put the heart around the candle and lit it. Hard to see the candle here.

And all lit up in the dark, it has a lovely effect.

This was the first one, but I am pretty sure we are going to make more in different shapes, like Waldorf stars, or maybe even birds. I would think this craft could be made without a toilet paper roll.

Beezus on the other hand drew the heart and cut it out. And without looking back at me...

started putting heart stickers all over it. She had no desire to make a candleholder herself. So, she invented her own craft, which I thought was quite clever.

Then we cut the back of it.

Punched holes in each side...

Braided three pipe cleaners in two strips, tightened them into the holes.

And created a little Valentine princess crown.

button and yarn hearts

I love buttons, but I do not sew. One of my favorite things in the world is a jar of buttons. I don't know why. I keep a jar full of buttons I have purchased for various crafts, or ones I have found. I really should buy a jar or two of vintage buttons, but for now, these are just a shitload of very colorful buttons.

So, combining my love of buttons with Valentine's Day, Beatrice and I decided to do a wee craft today. I guess it wasn't so wee after all. First we sorted out all the red, pink and orange buttons.

Then we grabbed a piece of canvas from our canvas pad. Very useful material. We cut out a heart and drew a faint outline on our canvas, then began hot gluing the buttons to the canvas.

And then...

We achieved button love! We framed it and it is very attractive. I am going to keep searching for a cool frame for this, like a gold, swirly, lovely frame. And I might stain the canvas with tea, since it is very white. I just want it to look antiqued.

In other Valentine craftiness, I created this weird thing to hang on the door. I saw these cool Valentine window hangers. There were very small, though, and I had this crazy wire heart from an old conversation heart door thing that was gifted to me. It fell and broke one of the hearts, so I pulled the rest off and was left with this wire heart. So, I took sock yarn, and created this cool 70s effect with it. Or Spirograph effect. I loved Spirograph as a kid. One of my favorite things ever.

I took it down, incidentally. It looks better on a wall, or window, rather than a door. It needs light behind it. Our front door is all window, but I can't figure out how to hang it since a wreath hanger isn't working. I will report back when I have sorted out the details of the button heart and the yarn heart.

Happy Valentine's Day, soon!

crayon hearts

I found this craft on Pinterest. It is originally a Martha S. craft. I am just warning you that our craft looks nothing like theirs. I followed the directions and did not improvise. We just suck at ironing things, cutting out things, and hanging things. So, there's that.

I should preface this by saying that I forgot it was Valentine's Day in a few weeks, and we should be doing heart crafts. Beezus loves hearts, so this is like her favorite holiday EVER. If she got to go door-to-door and get candy, and then Santa came overnight, she would want it to be Valentine's Day every day. Everything is PINK! And RED! And PURPLE! And PINK!

Anyway, I thought this was beautiful, and looked like stained glass. The way they hung over each other in that delicate, becoming way. So first you get some crayons. We did this craft with six dirty crayons.

Peel the paper off and start shredding them. Using a pencil sharpener to shave the crayons into fine crayon-y pieces.

You then get a large piece of wax paper and put the shaving in them. Fold the wax paper over. Try desperately hard not to get it lumpy, but crayon shavings are a little like glitter, except not so contagious.

Lavender and deep purple. After you fold it once, MAKE DAMN SURE you fold the edges in. I did not do this for the purple and now have a purple towel. Which is fine, it looks cool, and I needed a new art studio towel.

You can see the results of my first iron. YAY. You put a piece of paper, or kraft paper, or paper bag paper, over the whole thing and lightly iron. Put the iron on low or medium, but it takes almost no time. You can smell the wax melt.

Here we are with our cool new colored wax paper. It is very pliable and lovely when it cools. Then you cut out hearts. We did decide not to use a cookie cutter for our hearts. Which is why they look nothing like Martha's hearts. We strung them with sock yarn, unlike Martha and her silk thread. And hung them on a dowel.

You can make this look much cooler than me. I just know it. Share your Valentine Day Crafts with me, please. Looking for cool heart crafts. xo

Catching up on CED, and heART swap.

Well, I recognize how lame it is that it has been a very very long time since I posted with my CED projects. I have been sketching here and there, and doing art, some needle-felting. It is ironic that this month's theme is home, because I have really really been focused on my home the last two weeks. My husband had surgery, then my daughter and I got the vomiting/stomach flu/norovirus. I am also 32-33 weeks pregnant, so I am exhausted after taking care of people and my home all day.

Still, I have thought about CED everyday, and sometimes I get to sketch, even if it is just crayons and paper with Beatrice. As most everyone that reads here knows, I maintain a daily blog called still life 365, which is a blog for parents who have lost a child through pregnancy loss, stillbirth or neonatal loss. I post a piece of art every day from a different person. It is amazing, and I feel incredibly privileged to be privy to art in this way, and to share it with our little community. So, even when I don't get to do some kind of daily creative, I help spread the art-y love around. One of my favorite features of still life 365 is the newly started section called Artist to Artist. I interview a grieving artist about their art and grief. This past Sunday, I interviewed Kara Jones aka Mother Henna. You can read that right here. She is also participating in the CED challenge. The previous interviewee was Ines, again, she is also participating in CED. I promise that it isn't a conspiracy. I just am familiar with their work and their sons and their grief. I just love those conversations, and wanted to share them. When I think about home, I think about good conversation, comfort food, relaxing, art and ease.

Speaking of Ines and Kara, yesterday, I received my three cards from the the amazing heART swap. The awesomest part of the package was receiving work from some of my favorite artists--I knew everyone! I received a beautiful painting from Mother Henna herself:

 

The second one I received was from someone who has submitted a few times to still life 365, Amy McCarter. Her work is so moving and important. Her paintings are amongst the most commented upon on still life 365, which means she is resonating with a lot of other grieving parents. I personally had my breath taken away with this one.

And lastly, but certainly not leastly, the amazing Ines' carved heart rock found its way into my home. I feel so blessed.

I am in love with this heART, and now have to find a beautiful place for them. Has to be the altar, but we will see...My three contributions are needle-felted cards, which I have posted about before.

Beyond that, yesterday, I had a jizo commission. To be honest, I have a few commissions waiting for inspiration. I can't tell you why I haven't quite been able to muster the emotional strength to paint them, I just cannot. But jizos, I also paint them immediately. They require all my attention, my meditation strength, and my grief-focus. This one in particular was from a woman to her brother and his wife after the loss of their twins at 19 weeks. I couldn't let it sit in my inbox, so despite the constant cooing for Mama, I closed the door, meditated and painted. Here it is. The words represent the six realms and are also a haiku. I feel more inspired to tackle the other ones. Now, if I can just find the time...