Wood Engraving for Fun and Profit...well, fun anyway!

Little works

My friends at the Wood Engraver's Network have been exchanging prints for as long as I can remember. Upon renewing my membership this year, I decided to contribute something, which I have not done in a while. I produced in the past a couple of Bundle newsletter covers (bundles are what the twice yearly exchanges are called) and I recently received a nice check from their traveling exhibit and sale of my contributions. All and all this is a neat group of humble and masterful printmakers and I am proud to be a member. 

For my non-artist friends, wood engravings are like woodcuts but done on much harder wood or other surface and "engraved" (rather than "carved") with metal engraving tools much like jewelers use to engrave metal. As a result of the tedious process, wood engravings tend to be much more detailed than woodcuts and the illusion of "shading" is often possible by using very fine lines.

"Out Early" engraving on end-grain maple, 5 x 7 inches (11 x 15.5 cm)

Detail of "Out Early" printed with copper/umber inks

Here is Datura, a new wood engraving of a poisonous plant that lives in the desert lands and produces spectacular and very large white flowers surrounded by deep green leaves. I engraved it in lemonwood (end-grain) purchased from Dab Hand Print on Ebay.

This tiny print is about 1.25 x 2 inches (3 x 4.5cm), barely! The glasses pictured have a magnification of +3.0.

First proofs done, a little tweaking and cleaning up is in order, then I begin printing.

Tiny Datura on my home-made leather bag,
traditionally used to hold engraving blocks in place.
The two tools pictured are a #3 angle tint and
a #1 spit-sticker from Ramelson

close up of almost done block

Another good thing about engravings...
the mess is so small!
I proof with home-made wooden door-knob tools

First proof

More proofing, need to do some clean up
but it's looking good

 

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Lemon tree, very pretty...for wood engraving!

Lemonwood for Engraving

Ah, I bet most of you don't know that song?

Lemon tree, very pretty
and the lemon flower is sweet
but the fruit of the poor lemon
is impossible to eat

And I bet you din't know lemon wood is perfect for wood engraving? Wood engraving requires very tight grained wood, very smoothly finished and it is engraved, rather than carved, with hard-tiped tools that also engrave metal.
I just received a perfect batch of tiny blocks from Paul Bendall in the UK, who is a block maker of Lemonwood engraving blocks a former block maker to T N Lawrence and sons London.
Paul's Ebay shop: http://stores.ebay.com/Dab-hand-print

Tiny engraving lemonwood blocks, just in from the UK

Printing a wood engraving is much like printing a woodcut except it demands less ink, more pressure and a smoother paper. I have also found them to be "pickier" about everything during the inking process.

My personal wood engraving "arsenal"
patiently waiting their next project,
neatly arranged on a magnetic tool holder

Traditionally, wood engravings are smaller and more detailed than woodcuts and fine lines carved parallel to each other can very much mimic "shading" as in a pen & ink drawing. I have engraved end-grain maple (the most common), boxwood, end-grain walnut, end-grain cherry, Corian and Resingrave, the latter two being synthetic resin products.

A picture is worth a thousand fine lines...this was engraved on Corian (the counter-top stuff) which allows for infinite detail.

following the light
entrance to the Valley of Fire, my fav NV state park

Tempe Festival of the Arts!

Still a ways off, December 2-4, 2016 normal hours finally! 10am - 5:30pm daily.

Got my booth, PERFECT location! #1355 on Mill Avenue, between 6th and 7th

Here is the link:

http://www.tempefestivalofthearts.com/

Last time I was in Tempe

Stay in touch!

1000woodcuts Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/1000woodcuts 
Maria's Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/maria.arango.diener 
Maria's Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/1000woodcuts 
1000woodcuts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1000woodcuts/videos