101 in 1001 {II}: make a linoleum block print [completed 03.30.09]
linoleum is a very savage medium. one must have a very steady hand and make delicate little cutter-swoops from time to time, sure, but most of it seems to be big warlike gouges and blocky, folk art-ish images. you could argue that karl lagerfeld brought an element of that to chanel - that he draped cartoonish ropes of gumball-sized pearls over coco's sophisticated suits, and i wanted to make a linocut of him as some sort of comment on that - but really i just like smashing things together when i craft. i'm still terribly impatient, which is why the kaiser is marching across an old envelope on the refrigerator* (we still have almost no paper in the apartment, as we had to throw away all of our magazines and a lot of my old collage materials as part of bed bug fest '09) and why i won't be cooking with lemon juice for the next few days (i stabbed myself with my mean little v-gouge eleventy-four times). i had great fun, though, and my first linocut amuses me; if i can get the hang of printing evenly (and find some fancier ink), i think he could make a lovely pillow case border. fashion!
*i also stamped a bunch of our cereal boxes, but they wouldn't sit flat enough to take the ink and ended up looking even wonkier than the envelope. joe is going to be sketched out when he gets back from washington and goes to pour himself some cheerios.
Totally sympathize with the v-shaped scars that are undoubtedly all over your fingers. Did myself in with one of those in a poorly-executed project in jr. high.
ReplyDeleteI still have nightmares.
Yay for lino cuts! I bear quite a few of those v-shaped gouges myself. They're vicious. The best is when I just try to wipe the blood away and keep going and then D comes in and finds me hunched over a blood smeared piece of lino, still working. Fun times, right?
ReplyDeleteyeah, what is it about the lino injuries that, like, strengthen one's resolve to keep going ("no one makes me bleed my own blood!")? that was totally me last night, figuring the ink was non-toxic and that i'd clot soon enough anyway.
ReplyDeletefree linotype lessons (sort of) in a museum in finland made me sooo happy, once upon a time. i do remember band-aids being involved. my print was of bees. where did you get the stuff to do it!?
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to make some lino stamps. I love the feeling of it on my fingers. Mmmm.
ReplyDelete@wabes: lee's, yo! their craft supplies aren't crazy-extensive, but i figured they'd have at least enough to get me started; indeed, they had a kit that gave me the basics (and some additional gouges and lino blocks). they also had a rock tumbler that i clearly need to buy for the office (the coworkers aren't so sure, but i'm talking up the soothing properties of large quantities of polished quartz).
ReplyDelete