Saturday, April 07, 2012

Printing Chickens

 I recently found this chicken wood-block at a local store and just couldn't resist, because, chickens!  I got out the Dr. p.h. Martin's ink and dry ink stamping pad that I like to use for stamping and some nice tight pima cotton and tried it.  Didn't work too well, as you can see below on the left.
The stamp isn't very even on the stamping surface, so I put a layer of quilt batting underneath to give more to press into and make all of the stamp surface come into contact with the fabric.  I also used my trusty brayer to get the ink onto the stamp because the stamp pad didn't work too well either.
 It did much better printing with the quilt batting underneath.
 And the third print?
Hmmm, still pretty spotty.  The ink was gathering in these deep cut out parts in the design.  I think I'll either thicken the ink, or use fabric paint next time in hopes that it will just stick on the stamping surface.
Not giving up, I need more chickens...

4 comments:

  1. Love the chicken! Some of the wood blocks are not cut so nicely, but you got a really great one.
    Had you considered using the brayer to spread the ink/paint on glass, then pressing the block onto that to pick up the color? Just check and retouch any areas needed with the flat side of a cheap paint brush.
    Really cool block print!

    XXOO~~
    Anne

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  2. Thanks Anne! Yes I did try that with the brayer but it didn't seem to help much. I think I'll use your paint brush idea and go into the deep cut outs and soak up the excess that's stuck in there.

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  3. I can see filling in the negative space with some watercolor and then enhancing with hand stitch.

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  4. Oh I like the watercolor idea, I was thinking of over-dyeing, but hmmm. Some chicken-scratch stitching, I could definitely handle that. Good ideas both, thanks Karoda.

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