Printmaking at Penland: week 1

Here I am, in a rocking chair looking out at these beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains,  energized from a week of non-stop creative work at Penland School of Crafts...life is good!

I'm studying with Paul Roden, a master printmaker from Pittsburgh, learning to make multi-block color woodcut prints. The studio here is wonderful, the people are amazingly talented and I'm picking up lots of pro-tips from Paul as we work together each day. 

The basic idea is to create layers of color from seperately carved blocks - one for the key block (usually black) that gets carved first with all the details, then one for blue, red and yellow (or cyan, magenta, yellow as in CMYK.) I have learned how to transfer my key image to other blocks, how to mix transparent inks, how to get perfect registration on the paper - and that carving wood is a lot tougher than carving linoleum! 

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one of Paul's demos on separating and combining primary colors

my first woodcut! the key block now transferred to the 3 color blocks

yellow, pink and blue blocks printed without the key block (and with more transparency in the ink than I should have used!)

first printing of all four blocks - used too much ink so the key block didn't show up very well

printing again - key block shows, but not enough color on the others

There are SO many variables to work with in this - the inks, the carving, the pressure of the printing press, the kind of paper - but all that makes it like a big puzzle to solve!