Spock Lives!

Now if only I could find a place to hang this up....
This seller has some other super funky plates, I wish I could replicate it...
Beat Up Creations

New Book!

It's taken a year, but I found a book that I absolutely love!
The Little Black Book of Stories, by A.S. Byatt, is haunting and gorgeously written. It's been a long time since I've been so engrossed in a book that I can hardly put it down, but here it is!
It's got 5 different stories, all which have a ethereal (and maybe a little satirical) taste to them. My personal favorite is "Stone Woman", an Icelandic tale of being re-born.
Even if you have no wish to read again, just holding this book will make you feel better! To look at this book on Amazon click here

Top Seattle myths

Myth #1- It rains a lot in Seattle.
False - But it is cloudy. Seattle has an average of 295 cloudy days a year!

Myth # 2- You can drive down Pike's Place Market.
False! - The market technically has a street you can drive down, but pedestrians, food trucks and bikes all have the right of way before you do! It takes about an hour to drive 3 blocks!

Myth # 3- Seattle has a great transportation system.
False - Seattle does have a transportation system, but it is hardly ever consistent. Plus, people on the west coast are "friendlier". For some people the bus is how they socialize, and it's usually the guy who smells like weed who bothers you the rest of the ride home!

Not wood, not good.

I have tried used Speedball's "woodblocks" before, with horrible results. One block completely fell apart into feta cheese, the other one crack in half! But this time I decided to give it a try once again. It actually wasn't too bad. This time I bought a mounted linoleum block, which is basically plastic on particle board. It was nice to be able to cut tiny lines and holes without the block chipping, but I felt it lost a lot of it's soul along the way. I like working with wood because it was something alive, it almost has it's own personality ingrained in it (ingrained! Get it?) The linoleum block was a little too perfect. It's a nice work, but not my best, or even close to my best.
It also hated the water-based ink! Even when it's completely dry, if you brush against it, you'll have dry black ink all over your hands!
Water-based = fail.

Water-based!

That being said, I have found that the water based paint worked well on my smaller woodblocks.
This one "Three's Company" was a pain to spoon (I had to spoon quickly because the ink dries!!) But the end result is excellent. This one got into a lovely art show!

Solved

I figured out what to do with my nightmare woodblock. I've hung it in the window so all of our neighbors will have nightmares. It actually looks pretty good out there, plus! Free advertising!

It's been a while...

But I'm back!
I'm just finished working on my latest woodblock! I decided to use a water-based block ink instead of the regular oil-based ink I used in school. It's been really great so far, but today I decided to use it on a larger woodblock that what I've normally done. The result was disastrous! The ink dried too quickly, so I wasn't even close to finishing my spooning!