100 TINY LITTLE PRINTS

"Lucy's Morning"

I've mentioned before I follow an online group about Japanese Woodblock Printing, Barenforum.org and that they have organized exchanges.  Well, in honor of the 50th Exchange they decided to do a very small format.  And it was finally decided to do them  in the size of Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) 2.5" x 3.5".  There was a lot of excitement about the project and we got settled on 100 participants.  The usual has been around 35.  

It has turned out to be a lot of fun.  The hardest for me is picking an image.  I settled on an image of Lucy sitting in the sun.  It's from a photo I snapped one early morning, and I've always liked it.  It has the advantage of having a lot of contrast, which makes it easier to convert into a black and white image.

I wanted to do more than one block, though, more than just black and white.  So, I went with grey, black and white, two blocks.  Almost as simple as you can get.  Registration has always been my nemesis, but it turned out to be a non-issue with such a small print.  

Carving the blocks

I carved the blocks from boards of Basswood that Darrell made ready for me.  

A pencil rubbing of the first block

I used Nori paste and  Daniel Smith Watercolors, Lamp Black and Iridescent Blue Silver (which is Mica and Titanium White), it has little flecks of mica in it and is very interesting.  

Daniel Smith Watercolor 'Iridescent Blue Silver'

Adding the pigment to the first block

Paper and baren on the first block

The first block printed.

Beginning the second block with black

Printing the second block with black

I cut out 160 little 2-1/2" by 3-1/2" pieces of paper, 20 of which were Japanese type paper, and the rest were thicker white American style paper (I never write the names down, so I never know what it is).  I rejected 50 of them, and am keeping 110.  So, I'm calling it an edition of 110.  I'll be sending 101 to the Exchange Coordinator.  I might send one to my sister Sue, she loves animals.

All printed!

Back of cards

All of them, the pile on the left are going to the Exchange, the smaller pile on the right  are the Rejects, those in the back  are some of the test prints and the ones I'm keeping.

Ready to go!