Tales from Studio Mailbox

TJ's Restraining Order

Michelle Ward's 61st Crusade is about restraint. It was sad for me to discover that there's going to be a Crusade hiatus, despite the fact that I haven't been very active since moving from Germany. 

There was no way I was going to let this one slide, so I went into my closet and found my chipboard journal, which I call my "Ward Boards."  I started thinking about a lot of things... like how restraint is also thought of as "breathing room."  Leave it to Michelle to find an exercise that's fitting and clever and meaningful!

I started thinking about words I came up with at the beginning of 2012 that ironically all started with "re."  Reinvention, redefine, real, results, re-organization, refresh, resourceful, regular exercise.  I was so burned out from blogging and our international move, I can't believe I hadn't thought of "restraint!" 

So I was happy for this chance to try and make something a little more simple, a little more muted, a little more calm.  It wasn't easy!  I had to paint over the whole board when my initial attempt was way too bright and zippy.  I'm happy with the result though, and it's a perfect "last" page to my journal. 

There's still room in the middle of my little book to go and rediscover past exercises I wasn't a part of.  All of it is still out there.  I sometimes wonder if there are others like myself who would go back and work through all of that together.  We could revisit what we missed!  I didn't become a part of the Street Team until the Crusades were already in the 40's... imagine how much there is still out there to do...

For now, a big thanks to Michelle for bringing the creative community together, month after month for years.  Personally, I'm so grateful to all the cool people and sites I've discovered through the challenges I was a small part of.  I'm going to go cherish plugging away through her comments and visiting all the other participants this round, knowing it will be awhile before it happens again. 

Today I went back and looked at the months I could find that I played along.  It was so much fun!  Feel free to take a walk down my crusader lane:

C40 - I started Crusading

C41 - Grids

C42 - Strip Tease

C43/C44 - Scraping & Text Messaging

C45 - Back-to-Back

C46 - Hanging it Up

C47 - Evidence Box

C48 - Been There, Done That

C49 - Forensic Self Portrait

C51 - Home Sweet Home

C53 - Mad Scientist

C56 - Beliefs

Print Reduction Postcards

A few weeks ago I announced that I was joining in iHanna's 2012 postcard swap.  I'll take you through the process I used to make my entries, something fun and completely new to me, linoleum print reduction!

Although the finished product looks rather simple, this was a long intensive labor of love with many days of drying time between each application of color.

First I began with a block of linoleum that was already mounted onto wood that is exactly print height.  (In Germany the linoleum is unmounted).

Next I took cardboard boxes and cut them down exactly to the size of the print block. 

I sketched out the rough outline of my design.

After carving away everything except what I wanted to print, I went to the print house and inked up the block with my background color, white.

Next I set my block into the Showcard or "Poster" press.  This machine is basically a glorified rolling pin.  It has one cylinder with a handle that can be moved to adjust the pressure.  You manually set each piece of paper or card over the block that you have manually inked with a brayer and then you roll the cylinder over the job.

All the cards were printed in the run.

The cards were left on racks to dry and I came home and started carving away the same block, getting it ready for the second color, red. 

After a few days of drying time, I took my block back and inked it up again.  I printed the entire run of cards with the second color.  Everything I had carved away from the block remained white this time, and everything left on the block changed to red...

At this point I hated the "shading" under her neck!  It came out looking like a slasher film...

There was nothing to do but let all the cards dry and hope that with my third color, things would improve.

I set the 2-color cards out on racks to dry, cleaned up, and came home to carve away the final changes to the block. 

My last color was black.  I had no idea how much to carve away.  How much makes definition and how much makes drama?  Once it's carved away it's gone and there's no going back...

A few days later I went to print all the cards for the third time.   As you can see there was very little left of the printing block at this point.

Here are dry cards "before" applying the black:

And below: Wet, freshly printed cards with the 3rd and final color, black.  I had hoped the slasher look would disappear, but instead it just looks like older blood to me!  That's OK because I understand what creality is...

Not bad for my first time reduction printing!  I'm already contemplating more projects with this old and clever technique. 

*Special thanks to my friend Goog over at Journey of a Mermaid who helped me with the first run of color and all the awesome photography!  It was her idea to try printing the cards on both the FRONT and the back of the cereal boxes.  I love you g'friend..!  xx

For those of you in the swap who like my cards or want to follow my creative journey, please visit the Studio Mailbox Facebook Page, for more regular TJ news and info.