Tree and leaf

More stamps! With curved lines and everything. I don't have the gift of actually getting them to print very well. It's trickier than I would have thought trying to get an even coat of ink on these things, and then getting them to print evenly. What is really baffling is that I can ink and press once and get a fairly decent print, but when I re-ink and press again, then image is much fainter, no matter how much ink I put on the stamp.

Why am I doing all this, anyway? This is a strange tangent for me to light out on. Or sort of. But then isn't, since my ultimate goal is to block print fabric, which will then be used for all kinds of costume and clothing and possibly sales applications.

And for pete's sakes: it's fun! Why is it so hard just to have fun without guilt or the pressure to turn it into something "worthwhile"? Dumb.

Flower of the western mountain
        foot in the sea
        head in the sky
(The mountain, not the flower. As far as I can tell, these flowers don't grow within breeze distance of the ocean. I just liked the rhythm.)

 

Hope

Who would cross deserts

Unless there were hope of green,

water, honeycomb

And now for something completely different

Just to continue with my confirmation that I am no visual artist, I have decided to try to learn how to carve blocks for printing. This is using Speedball Speedy Carve plastic cutting...thing. Half the evening was spent just figuring out how to put the knife blade on the handle. The intro kit I got talks about inking your block and cleaning it, but there isn't one word about how to put the cutting tool together. I guess they reckon that if you can't figure out how to put it together on your own, then you really shouldn't be playing with sharp knives. 

About all I can say is that...I learned a lot. I stuck with straight lines and ended up with kind of a quilt block from hell. I would be talking about the green thing. And the rust colored thing, but that ink pad didn't seem to work as well.

As part of trying to learn to carve blocks, I'm also trying to learn how to draw Celtic knots and make fake mandalas. Note that I am saying trying to learn rather than learning. I think the difference is clear. And apt. But I shall persevere.

Here's a picture of the block itself. I'm going to need a lot of practice.

Sigh. But I'm happy to have started down a new rabbit hole.