This is the third day of summer break and the first day I’ve produced satisfactory prints.  I confess that yesterday, I spent the morning carving an image into a linoleum block only to realized after making my first print that you have to reverse the text or the type on your prints will come out backwards.

So back to the drawing board.

This morning, I finished carving the second block featuring my cat, Floyd, who may go on to become the star of this blog the way Dakota, my Basset was the star of my previous blogs.

I still haven’t decided if I’m returning to blogging or not yet.

Linoleum cut prints, if you’ve never made one, are fairly simple to create.  Take an image you like.  I started with a page I made for The Sketchbook Project featuring a drawing of my cat, Floyd.  Figure out what the main lines in the image are.  You can get detailed with linoleum cut prints but it’s probably a good idea to start simple.  Remember the lines you carve out are what will not print.

Carve the image into the block.   Remember to make your text backwards, not just the words but the letters, too.

Ink your block using a roller or a paintbrush.  I tried using a roller, but the one I got from Michael’s is really for decoupoge so I ended up brushing the paint onto the block.  I used paint/ink I had leftover from the last time I did screen printing which worked fine once I figured it all out.

Place the block on a piece of paper. Put it under the press and press.  Put your image on the drying rack.

Repeat as many times as you like.

I made quite a few copies, many on paper but some on scrap matte material suitable to send out as mail art.

Let me know if you’d like one.

So, I don’t know if this is a  to blogging or not.  I’ve moved my television into the closet as part of an attempt to change things up in my life.  I’ve vowed to spend time in the studio making something every day this summer, every day that I’m home anyway.

So, maybe this can become more of an art blog than a book blog, though i suspect I will end up writing about books now and then.

I’m also thinking of making it something of a history blog, since I keep finding these little tidbit of information that I’d like to look into.  It would be nice to have somewhere to share my findings.

For now, who knows.  But seriously, let me know if you’d like a Floyd the Cat card. I’d be happy to send you one.