Soft Block Printing workshop - Saturday

Dragonfly soft block print • © 2003 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Have you been intrigued by the possibilities of block printing? (If not, I hope you will be... it is a wonderful art form to work with.) Or do you like stamping, and feel like getting more creative?

Iridescence, an acrylic painting created using the same dragonfly soft block

© 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Block printing is kind of a next step up from stamping – and you can combine it with acrylic painting to create mixed media pieces, something I particularly enjoy (you can see it in the painting above, Iridescence). You can also use it to print on textiles – but it stands on its own as a wonderful medium.

Angel of Peace soft block print, printed as a holiday card

© 2003 Karen Lynn Ingalls

You can use it to create handprinted cards and fine art prints, which is what we'll be doing this Saturday in this year's Soft Block Printing workshop. Soft block printing is similar to, but much easier to work with, than linoleum block or wood block printing. We'll also be using non-toxic, water-soluble inks, as well as safety cutters, which have the added benefit of allowing you more control of your cuts, and giving you the ability to cut much nicer curves.

In the workshop, we'll design and cut the block for printing, and ink and print greeting cards and fine art prints. If you'd like to come, bring along some images you might like to make prints of – drawings? photographs? We'll be carving 4" x 6" blocks.

Songbird soft block prints drying, in process, with multiple colors

© 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The workshop runs from 10:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, August 27th, at the Calistoga Art Center, 1435 North Oak Street in Calistoga (at the Napa County Fairgrounds). Bring your lunch! You can register online at the Calistoga art center's website, at www.calistogaartcenter.org.

You can also see photographs of the process from 2010's two-day printmaking workshop in my August 2010 blog post. And here's a link to Charles deLimur's block printing process, a marvelous block printing photo essay by Charles deLimur, a Calistoga artist who does Napa Valley Open Studios each year. Charley works with multiple colors and multiple printing runs, a difficult and challenging process, which he illustrates beautifully. If you click on each individual photo, you can read his commentary about the process.

If you'd like to come, I look forward to seeing you! And if you're not able to join us, think about the possibilities of block printing... it's really a wonderful medium.

Block printing studio time this Saturday

Angel of Peace • © 2003 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Calling all block printers! (Well, in the area, anyway....) This Saturday, Calistoga's Community Presbyterian Church (also known as The Green Church) is opening its doors for a special block printing studio day, November 6th, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00p.m.

This is non-instructional time – it will be just printers, inking and printing away, sharing the time, and generally having a lot of fun and making a lot of prints, together. You could think of it as a printmaking quilting bee, of sorts.

If you'd like to print collographs or monotypes in the company of other printers, you're welcome to join us! Whether you're printing cards for the holidays, or a series of prints, or experiemting with the medium, you are welcome. This is time to print and share the printing process with other printers.

Dragonfly • © 2003 Karen Lynn Ingalls

So what do you bring? Your block, paper, water-soluble ink (no solvent-based inks!), brayer (that has not been used for solvent-based inks), a surface for inking (plexiglass sheet, disposable paper palette pad for acrylic painters, or printer's bench hook), and your creative spirit!

Cost? A donation to the church to thank them for their generosity in opening their space to us, and to cover their costs. Where is the Green Church? 1407 3rd Street, at the corner of 3rd and Berry Streets (just across from the Orthodox Monastery and down the street from Calistoga Elementary School), in Calistoga.

What do you do to participate? Join us this Saturday! It would be great if you could let me know in advance, too - you can send me an email at karenATkarenlynningalls.com or call at 707.942.0197. And our thanks to the church for welcoming us!

Soft Block Printing Workshop - Saturday

Join our Soft Block Printing workshop this Saturday, October 23rd! It's at the Calistoga Art Center, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

In it, you will learn to create block printed cards and art prints with easy-to-cut soft blocks (much easier than linoleum blocks) and non-toxic, water soluble inks – for the holidays or any time. Above is an example of the possibilities of soft block printing – it's the holiday card I made a number of years ago. Don't be intimidated! Much simpler designs can be just as effective, and often even more stunning.

Bring potential design ideas (or sketches worked out for a 4"x6" design), and your own materials, if you have them – or you may purchase materials in class. If you have any words you would like to incorporate in your design, bring them, printed out in a font you like.

The Calistoga Art Center is located at 1336 Lincoln Avenue (2nd Floor), Calistoga. You can find out more and register online at www.calistogaartcenter.org.

This post, Soft Block Printmaking Workshop, introduces the process a bit (I posted it before this summer's workshop), and this post, Soft Block Printing workshop - Photos, shows the printing process (we will only have time to print one color per print, though), from this summer's workshop.

Soft Block Printing workshop - Photos

Jane inking the block © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The soft block printing workshop was so much fun – it's an enjoyable process! Taking two days for it allowed us to spend the second day printing, while we needed much of the first day for carving the blocks and making test prints as we developed them.

Using a key for registration © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

We used various methods of printing multiple colors. These photos were all taken on the second day, so I'm sorry to say I don't have any of Connie, who was with us on Saturday.

Ready for the second color © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here you can see Carolynne's printing in progress. This was the second color of her print. The first run was of yellow, striking against the lavender color of the paper.

Printing the block © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Carolynne was making a series of printed cards. This method works beautifully for hand-printed cards.

Carolynne's two color print! © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

This printing process was a reduction cut - with further printings from the same block, which you continue to cut more of. The tricky part is that you can't go back to print more of the first run, once you've cut the block further. You have to really plan in advance.

Hand coloring the block © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Notice the two blocks? Here you see a second block, using the same design, created from the first, as well as the first block (with its reduction cut), which is being hand colored.

Carolynne's cards and prints © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Here are some of Carolynne's prints, including several on rice paper, which works beautifully for block printing. Everyone was pleased with the results they got from printing on rice paper.

Donna and her beehives © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Donna experimented with different ways of combining different blocks or parts of blocks in the same print. She asked herself, what would the hive be like both with and without a background? And what would it be like with bees?

Donna's beehives, with bees © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Voilà! Bees!

Donna's Isis prints, in copper and gold © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

You can see both the cards Donna created from her Isis block and her Isis and beehive blocks.

Betsy at work, surrounded by blocks, inks, printed gift tags, and carving tools © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

You can see some of the tools we used in the course of creation during the weekend, in the array Betsy is working with at her table.

Betsy with her gingko leaf prints © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Betsy used several small blocks to create sets of gift tags, using different combinations of colors and different methods of creating multiple colors. Here is one of her wonderful gingko leaves.

Betsy's handmade gift tags, printed with multiple colors on different papers

© 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

It's amazing to see the variety of results you can get from one simple block....

One of Betsy's handmade gingko gift tags © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The subtlety of this hand-applied second color adds a richness to the print. Red and copper make a beautiful combination.

Carolynne and Jane admire one of the prints of Max © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Jane created a series of prints of Max, her dog, using different combinations of red, black, blue, and gold, with white paper.

Max the Bichon, up close © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The liveliness of her carving makes for a fun print. We realized, looking at everyone's results, that sometimes when the registration of the second color is a little bit off, it creates some nice special effects with the paper. Happy accidents!

Jane's prints of Max © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Look at the variety of possibilities! Again, these were all printed from one block.

Admiring Jane's prints of Max © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

This second day of printmaking was a wonderful exploration of possibilities. What a joy! That's what soft block printing is all about, for me.

I'm tentatively scheduling one more Soft Block Printing workshop for the year, in October, for those who would like to learn the process and create cards or prints for the holidays. I'll post the date and time when it is definitely scheduled.

Soft Block Printmaking Workshop

I'm looking forward to next week's Soft Block Printmaking workshop (either a one-day workshop on Saturday for those who want to try this out for the first time, or a full weekend workshop for those who want to really plunge into all the things you can do with this medium).

If you have done linoleum or wood block printing before, this is a little different. Soft blocks are made of new materials created in recent years. They cut like butter, and their ease of cutting makes it a much more enjoyable process (for me, anyway). The ones I recommend are Speedball's Speedy Carve blocks – the pink ones in the stack below.

Speedball's Speedy Carve stamps are the pink ones

In addition, Speedball, a printing supplies company, invented safety cutters – called LinoZips – that are easier to hold and to manipulate, and that create beautiful curving lines with much more ease. Besides that, we're using water-soluble inks – so there's no solvent smell. Ain't technology wonderful? Each of these things has made the block printing process simpler and, for me, a lot more fun.

One of my Christmas cards – Angel of Peace © 2004 Karen Lynn Ingalls

The first day will be about getting your design on the block, and carving the block and printing it. For those who are interested in printing more than one color, we'll get started on different methods of doing that, too.

The second day, we'll continue with different methods of printing multiple colors, including hand coloring, reductive printing, and using a key block. We'll also do a little block printing on fabric, so be sure to bring things you'd like to print on (cotton shirts from consignment or thrift shops, pieces of old sheets (for experimentation and something special!), white dish towels, canvas tote bags, T-shirts, or...?

You can register online at the Calistoga Art Center's workshop page. If you'd like me to supply your materials, please give me a call to let me know in advance at (707) 942-0197.

One additional workshop is coming up this summer – Painting the Costumed Model! Stay tuned....