How can I express my good fortune?
I live in a small town without any chain stores (This is on purpose. I hate mass consumerism!) and about 9 months ago an honest to goodness genuine art supply store opened up called South County Art Supply. Before this I would travel over an hour to pick up the smallest of supplies. So right there, I considered myself very lucky. But, it gets better. I was special ordering paper there a few weeks ago and the owner, Andrea Peitsch, offered to support me through my 365 Day challenge! She and her sales rep are going to provide me with free art materials to try throughout the year. It is a win/win, I get to try supplies I may not have had the opportunity to and Andrea gets feedback on whether she should offer the products in her store. I can’t believe my good fortune and the love and support that surrounds me. Thank you everyone for your kind words, cheering me on, and now my favorite thing in the world ART SUPPLIES!!!!
OK. Back to the art. Andrea provided me with a 5×7 linoleum artist block, Speedball inks, a brayer and all of the carving bits to take a stab at carving.
First I had to come up with an idea. I chose a Koi fish and I wanted it to appear to be chasing its own tail. Quite simply for the amusement factor. I sketched a design and then took a black marker and colored in the areas I would be carving out. This helps you not carve out the wrong areas.
It was harder than I expected. I had to put some muscle power into it. I could feel my shoulders spasming. And then there was the resistance factor. When you push really hard into linoleum with a sharp blade and the linoleum unexpectedly gives way, do you know what happens?
This. Notice the nice v-groove in my skin. I carved my hand by accident……so a couple hours later, the walk in clinic crazy-glued my hand back together. They were impressed at such a clean slice. Yep, it’s going to leave a scar. Notice how up above I said I’d “Take a stab at carving”. Hee hee hee. I think I will lay off the carving tools for a while.
If you have been following my blog you know my husband loves fish motifs. So this fish block won’t really be for paper printing. Do you know what I’m going to do with it? Create an awesome dish set in pottery class! So stay tuned and we’ll see how that develops.
Andrea – Thumbs up on the linoleum blocks. It didn’t take too long and the investment isn’t too bad for the return. However, I recommend wearing a glove on the hand holding the block ;0
I am off to NY to attend my grandmother’s funeral. She was 92 and had a long wonderful life. We’ll see how I can incorporate my 365 challenge into a messy couple of days…
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I am so impressed with your local art store! (I sent them a message telling them so too) Also..TEE HEE .. take a stab at carving!