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Saturday 13 January 2018

Block Printing

I have a growing collection of wooden printing blocks which I pick up mainly at shows as I find them lovely to work with, especially when using my gelli plate.

I was therefore thrilled when I received a late birthday present from my daughter Clare which was a kit for hand printing a scarf with a wooded block.   It came from The Arty Crafty Place who we saw when we went to the Sewing Bee Live Show.

The scarf if huge and I didn't know quite where to start and what to do.  I was also worried I'd start and then not have enough paint to finish as the pot in the kit looked very small against the scarf.  After a lot of deliberation and general phaffing I decided to start printing from one end, see how it went and then do the same from the other end, figuring that if I had enough paint and they met in the middle then great.

I worked on my ironing board as I thought that was the printed bit could remain fairly free and have time to dry.  I put a towel under the scarf to give a soft base to print into as well as protecting my ironing board.   I did give the scarf a gentle press as it had been heavily twisted and creased when I unwrapped it and although I preferred this look to a pristine flat surface, I was worried that if it was too creased it would affect the print.


  


My plan worked well and I managed to print about 20" in from each end which left quite a gap unprinted in the middle but I think it looks better for it.  My only problem was trying to make the printing look random - I don't do random so I had to concentrate hard.





I love it and look forward to wearing it somewhere warm!

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