MAILING PRINT

 I finished off the print for Maria's Monumental Puzzle Print, 100 Acts of Kindness.

I wanted to include some goodies for Maria for doing such noble work, too.

So, off it all goes to the Post Office.

FINISHED PRINT

I finished up the carving on my print for the Kindness Puzzle Collaborative Print.  I think it turned out pretty good, with a minimum of mistakes.  The dogs enjoyed hanging out with me out by the picnic table.

Then we moved up onto the deck and continued with the napping, until it got too hot to stay outside.

Once inside, Jax continued with his nap.

It was a good day for dogs.

STARTED ON PRINT

I sewed a few rows on the Bars Quilt.  Still have a few more to go.

I made a backing for the fish tank, sides too.

Then, I took my carving tools: chisels and an exacto knife out to the picnic table and spent a pleasant few hours working on the print for Maria's monumental collaborative puzzle on Kindness.  I didn't quite get done.  But I did better than I thought I would, considering I haven't done anything like this in years.

CARVING FOR PEACE

I finally got around to carving an image into my piece of the Peace Puzzle Project.

I sat on the patio, under the umbrella, with the sound of the waterfall nearby.  It was very pleasant.

Now I just need to get it into the mail to Maria in Las Vegas.

STARTED ON YOT DRAGON PRINT

I struggled with the drawing for my Year of the Dragon print.  I had a clear concept, The Dragon With the Girl Tattoo, but I couldn't get the image in my head to materialize on paper.


But I had an epiphany while on our walk in Lincoln Park.


It finally came together, and I decided not to fuss with it any more.  


I like it.

I sanded up some 4" by 6" blocks of Basswood that I had laying about and started carving the 'key block'.

I inked up the block to in order to transfer the image unto the second block and also printed one copy, thinking I would use some colored pencils to experiment with color.  I should have printed more, duh.  I also see some boo-boos that need to be fixed (particularly the girl's knee where the knife slipped).  We got busy after dinner and I never did color it in.  I'm thinking about trying a 'rainbow roll'.  We'll see.  I'll be carving the easier color block tomorrow.

CITY OF THE WORLD

I finally finished my block for the City of the World Project by Maria Arango of Reno, Nevada.  She organizes these Monumental Puzzle Print Projects (and blogs about them).  This is the first one I've been involved in.  

She's a dynamo.

Basically, she plans a large puzzle print, cuts out the pieces of the puzzle, mails them out to participants, who carve an image into them and mail them back to her.  She then puts the pieces back together, inks it up and prints up enough prints for everyone, then mails each participant a print.  Sounds easy, huh?  Pah!

You never know what you'll get in the end, and you have to put your trust in a lot of people to follow through, but boy, what a payoff in the end.

I'm secretly hoping I can make myself available to go down and help her with the printing this year. I don't know how much help I'd be, but I'd sure learn a lot.

CARVING ISSUES

You should have your plan worked out before you start cutting. That's rule one, right?

"Measure twice, cut once."

"Haste makes waste."

"Think twice before making a final decision."

To give myself credit, I did have it all worked out before I started cutting. I just came up with a better plan.

"Don't change horses in the middle of the stream."

Anyway, long story, short blog about it:

I decided the only way I could make my print the way I wanted was to use a stencil....didn't really want to do that (stencils have their own issues), so I was hesitant, but started in.

I made lots of drawings, using first watercolor, then (even better) colored pencils. I made all kinds of colored drawings.

And, then I started cutting. And then I came up with a better idea. And I re-cut. And then came up with an even better idea, but I had cut out the wrong part already. Drat!

So, I got out the putty.

I guess I could come up with an even better plan if the putty doesn't work.