Happy Friday

I keep telling myself to post on my blog more often, but as you can see, the thought is somehow not manifesting into actual postings. No one knows why. I am sure this recent silence will pass eventually, but for now, I am taking the advice of a dear friend, emmet, and making an effort to "be kind to myself". After all, there is only so much one can do in a day.

I have been busy!!! This past week, I decided to experiment with creating monotypes without a printmaking press. As some of you may remember from earlier posts, I do not have a press of my own, but have been fortunate to have the use of a press owned by a friend here in Joshua Tree. I am grateful for the generosity Shant has shown in regard to his press, but I also felt like I needed to have another option. My first try was to use a wooden spoon and a brayer to apply pressure to the paper and the inked plate. (for those of you who don't know, a brayer is a small roller that can be used to apply ink to a printmaking plate.) That gave OKAY results, but I found that the wooden spoon was rubbing off the wet paper, and it also left marks. Plus, I wasn't really getting enough pressure for the results I wanted. Then, I tried a small piece of plastic pvc pipe, and rolled it over the paper and plate. That actually was better, but after a day of creating prints this way, I woke up the next morning and found that my hands were really sore!!! Never mind my arms, which I was using to try to get as much pressure as I could. So on the second day, I decided to use a rolling pin!!! Yes, just a regular old kitchen rolling pin like what your mother used to roll out a pie crust. That gave me the best results.

After using a printmaking press for so long, I am a little spoiled. I do think the results are the best with a press, at least for what I have been wanting to do. However, I am excited that I have found another way to create monotypes. Here is one of the new monotypes I did with the wooden spoon and brayer method.



I also wanted to give kudos here on my blog to a friend of mine, Mavis Penney. She has just started a "painting a day" blog, with some lovely watercolor paintings of the Labrador coast. Stop on over and have a look! (just click on her name)

Have a great weekend everyone!!!