Mumbling Again

Holiday Cards

So Paola thought it would be nice to send out holiday cards last year and we came up with the concept of making a block print of the Williamsburg Bridge. We never got around to making the cards last year, but this year it was a mission.

First of all... It took about 7 or 8 study sketches before I had a layout and design that I felt comfortable with using. Part of this process was removing details that would be hard to carve into the linoleum. The next step was to scale the study down to fit and sketch it right on the block.

I later found out that if keep a 100 watt light bulb over the block it makes it both easier to see what you're doing and it softens the linoleum and makes it carve cleaner, and with more detail and less effort. I did it before I got this advice and my thumb when numb for three days.

We're pretty happy with the results though, and plan to do another next year.