This month I embarked on some printmaking as part of an Indiegogo campaign. These are my latest attempts at block printing, which is like stamping if you made your own stamps.
The process is pretty simple: you carve an image into super-soft rubber (though you can get blocks made of much harder material, the soft rubber is meant for beginners), apply ink with a roller, then stamp. Try to remember that your stamped image will be in reverse. Which I failed to do at first:
But got it right eventually!
My goal was to make some fun prints that are now part of a fundraiser. Local dance company/family business Sugar Swing is crowdfunding to build a ballroom in Edmonton that’s dedicated to jazz dance and music. So it was appropriate for the prints to have a jazz theme!
Swing Brother Swing and Shout Sister Shout are both swing dance tunes. I loved the symmetry of these two phrases. Also, it was nice to to have repeat words, because carving the letters was super tricky.
It took a number of practice stamps and ruined prints before I was satisfied with the reproduction. Stamping was not as straightforward as I expected! The ink doesn’t coat the stamps consistently, and you have to be careful with how much pressure you’re applying to the stamp. But I do like the gritty look and texture overall.
These prints are for sale on Indiegogo! If you’d like to buy one, or learn more about Edmonton’s newest ballroom and live music venue, check out our Indiegogo page.