Posts Tagged “lino-cuts”

I read a recent article about the dangers (or maybe it was folly) of making new work for an upcoming show without testing and revising the original idea first.  So, here I am less than one month away (24 days to be exact) from the Colorado Potters Guild Fall show in Nov. and I’m making new work.  A couple nights ago, I woke up around 2 am and suffered through a bout of insomnia - my grandparent’s clock that makes noise every 15 minutes and announces the hour with the appropriate loud gongs reminded me that I should have been sleeping at 3am and then again at 4am.  Normally, I don’t have problems sleeping through the night, but every once in awhile it happens.

All of a sudden, instead of counting sheep, I was thinking about pottery and clay.  New forms popped into my head and I briefly entertained the idea of getting up and marching into the studio.  I knew that if I turned on the light above my nightstand that my husband would be grumpy - so I allowed my mind to mentally visualize some of those forms in the dark of night.  Vases, tea pots, covered boxes, sets, tiles and more floated through my head.  After I heard the clock ring 4 am, I was feeling sleepy again and drifted off to clay filled dreams until the alarm buzzed 6am.  Luckily, I was able to remember and sketch those ideas out in the morning.

This isn’t one of the forms that I imagined in the wee hours of Monday morning, but it might have influenced my clay filled dreams.  On Sunday afternoon, I was playing around with a lino-cut that my husband made this past summer of a fish bone skeleton and crafted this little set of 2 small cups and matching tray.  I’m not much of a shot drinker myself, but the cups are a good size for hard liquor.  I use similarly sized cups to drink red wine - and the tray could be part of the presentation, or maybe hold some light snacks.  All three pieces are hand built from slabs of clay that were printed using the lino cut and a sheet of embossed paper.

Back to sleepless in Denver….  When I made the set (above) on Sunday, I noted that the tray was the perfect size for a stick of butter.  True confession:  Other than the plastic butter dish that came with my fridge, my other butter dish is a functional but unexciting white ceramic butter dish that I found at a thrift store years ago.  My husband has been bugging me to make a covered butter dish for years.  Consequently, my earlier observation about the tray must have triggered something in my brain that caused me to wake up and start designing a covered butter dish that night.    First thing on my agenda yesterday, was to make a paper template for a slab built butter dish.  I pulled out a stick of butter, along with my thrift store butter dish to get a good look at dimensions - then started measuring and drawing a covered lid on paper.

The trickiest part was trying to decide if the corners should have a slight curve or come straight down at 90° angles.  I was able to solve the issue by cutting on the diagonal at each corner intersection and then began the process of folding the corners to find a pleasing fit.

I didn’t account for the slight flare that I allowed in my lid template which increased the base perimeter, so I had to enlarge the bottom half of the butter dish template.

The alteration does make for a larger butter dish than what one would find in a store, but as a bonus, it will fit odd sizes of butter that one might find at a farmers market or specialty market.

I even added a decorative, yet functional handle to the lid.  The one I own does not have a handle which I think is a poor design choice.  The lid routinely slips out of my hands - it’s a wonder I haven’t broken it yet.

Once I roll out the clay slabs and print them with whatever texture or lino-cut I want, I place the paper template on the slab and use an X-acto knife to cut the shape out.  I use extremely soft slabs of clay which can be a challenge, but allows for a seamless design and minimal joints.

Meanwhile, there’s so much external noise right now because of the election and all the bleak economic news that makes it easy to become mired in negativity and dare I say hopelessness.  Surprisingly, I am oddly calm and more focused than ever before since I have ready experienced a pseudo personal crisis late summer/early fall before all of this really blew up in the news.  It’s not that I don’t care, because I do, it has more to do with my recent decisions and my resolution to forge ahead with a new sort of intentional life that is helping me weather the storm.    On a related note, I loved Whitney’s post on staying centered that she wrote a few days ago - perfect metaphor for clay people.

Back to the studio for me,

~Cynthia

Tags: covered ceramic butter dish, hand building with clay, lino-cuts, relief printing on clay

Golden Cut linoleum from Dick Blick

After building my boxes and HAND painting each and everyone for the Colorado Potter’s Guild Show and the Summer Art Market, I decided that I should employ a different method to speed up production of my boxes. Hand painting certainly has a place in my work, but it is labor intensive. So, I decided that the humble relief print would be the perfect solution since I would only need to do the labor-intensive part (carving) up front. The lino-cuts will last years and years and leave a nice imprinted texture on the slabs of clay.

Did I mention that I like using the Golden Cut linoleum from Dick Blick? I hate battleship gray linoleum - ick petuie blech. One other cost effective option,is to carve actual left over linoleum if you have any sitting around your house. Someone in my printmaking class in college did that and it worked great.

I decided to start with a theme that I use frequently - a series of vertical vines. First I draw my sketch with pencil and then go over the drawing with a sharpie for easier carving later on. Pencil smudges, sharpie doesn’t. Love Sharpies - I don’t think one could ever have too many!

Starting to carve

I quickly learned that having the right tools for the job makes all the difference in the world. Forget the cheapo carving tools and invest in some nice palm sized wooden handled ones in a variety of sizes. I purchased my set from a wood working shop in Maine similar to these, though less expensive. One word of caution - carve away from yourself. I speak from experience.

Side View

Finished carving

Yesterday afternoon, I finished carving the vine and even did a little ginkgo leaf cut, since I broke the one I originally made. I tried cutting it out - didn’t work.

Poppy Drawing

My poppy box sold right away at the Summer Art Market, so I decided to replicate it in linoleum. Once again, I hand drew the design in pencil and Sharpie. This time, however, I decided to make this like a line drawing. Where I carve away, it will be raised when I print it on clay. Where the linoleum is left intact, it will leave an impression when printed. Don’t forget that this will be backwards when it’s printed - especially important if you want to add any text. When using text, I like to write words out in pencil and then I hold the linoleum up to a mirror before I carve away to make sure it looks right.

Today, I’m going to venture out to the garagio and do some relief printing on clay. My mom’s birthday is coming up soon and I promised her a box - so I’d better get to work!

Till later,

~Cynthia

Tags: ginkgo, Golden Linoleum, lino-cuts, poppy, relief printing on clay, vine

Golden linoleum, metal ruler, exacto knife and cutting mat
In my last post, I wrote about a book, Image Transfer on Clay, by Paul Wandless and some of the techniques that I wanted to try out. I’ve got my eye on a Print Gocco, but first I’m going to try some of the image transfer techniques with the materials that I have readily available in my studio. I have my mind set on making some ceramic tumblers and impressing my lino-cut onto them for decoration. I was at a friend’s house last week, and I drank wine from a handmade ceramic cup and I can’t tell you how much that added to the experience of drinking the wine and spending time with my friend. Suffice it to say, it left me feeling very full and contented.

Wood-working tools with various shaped gauges to carve the linoleum
I need new wine glasses myself and have been searching for just the right ones for the last 6 months or so. I was looking for glass ones, but ceramic ones will be oh, so much better! These will not have the typical stem, but rather will be modeled after some my friends have recently purchased at Divino, that look like small juice glasses.

Requisite glass of red wine - though I don’t recommend cutting and drinking
My clip art image which I’ve resized in Photoshop
I chose an image of a dragonfly from some Dover Clip Art as the basis of my design. I was looking for something simple and small that I could use as my stamp. If you sign up for Dover’s email list, they send free clip art samples to you once a week. I have a folder on my computer just for the clip art in the event I need a little help with the shape or details of something I’m making. Once I cut the linoleum down to size I drew the dragonfly directly onto the linoleum.

Cutting the linoleum down to size - in this case about 1.75″ x 2.5″
I’ve drawn a likeness of the dragonfly directly onto the linoleum with a pencil
Beginning to carve
I haven’t made a relief print block in quite some time and I had to reacquaint myself with the process. Safety precautions: cut away from yourself, don’t have your hands in front of the direction of your carving tool - better yet, use a bench hook to use as a stop.

Dragon fly image and finished linocut
I decided to try out my linocut and made a card. This helps me to decide where I might need to clean up the edges of the linocut.
I used Lyra watercolor crayons to test out my linocut. It works pretty good. Next up today, I’m going to throw some small porcelain tumblers and print my dragonfly onto the clay to see how well this is going to work. So, stay tuned for part 2 coming up the day after next. Here’s an article by Paul Wandless from Pottery Making Illustrated on how to use a lino-cut to impress clay.

Closeup of linocut

Enjoy your Sunday, and Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there,

Tags: ceramic wine glasses, dover clip art, dragonfly, Golden Linoleum, lino-cuts, linocut, paul wandless