Beautiful cherrywood blocks

Why cherry?

Often I get asked why I insist on using cherry wood. My answer is usually that it is the traditional Japanese wood for producing woodblocks for centuries. But the "real" answer is, I like it! 

Not the easiest wood to carve, most wood carvers invariably point out that basswood is softer and easier to work with. If I wanted "easy" I would have gone into selling women's shoes! No, cherry is the wood for me. Amazing grain, amazing variety, every piece in my stash already has a beautiful image in mind, just waiting for me to find it and carve it. 

Cherry is hard, but the grain is tight and allows infinite detail. Tools have to be sharp for sure and wrists and hands will hurt. But it will yield 200, 300 prints if I wanted to, registers beautifully without expanding or contracting and makes beautiful prints. 

Finishing the blocks

The greatest gift is after the print run is done. A cherry block begs to be carved again into a relief carving, which is precisely what I have been doing with my original blocks. Lately, I carve deeper in relief and stain to match the print that the block worked so hard to produce. 

Once carved, I gather the original print if it was a color print and set by the block. Then I use standard stains and some non-standard stain and raw pigment mixes to approximate the color. I apply with brushes and keep rags handy to lighten some areas. Letting the stain into the recesses produces a darker finish, while wiping quickly after applying makes nice highlights and variations in color. 

Soon after all the color stains are applied, I give it a coat of satin polyurethane finish. In some cases I have been using flat polyurethane finish (In the Shallows, below) which allows for the wood to be protected without too much shine. The poly layer also blends the not quite dry stains so that the whole image has the feel of a painting. 

Latest

My block collection grows! Here are the latest, some stained some au naturel. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. For a peeksy at all my available original blocks, go here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/1000woodcuts?section_id=17653011

Angry Skies, still drying!

Angry Skies detail

Angry Skies detail

In the Shallows, relief carving

Moonshadow

Hija del Sol

Hija del Sol detail

Hija del Sol detail

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Getting the hang of finishing carved wood

The scary part

I really enjoy carving the woodblocks and I am getting a bit bolder, I'm thinking full 3D sculpting next year!? maybe...

Hija del Sol (Daughter of the Sun) gets a remake. Actually the entire history of this image which dates back to 2002 goes like this: I completed Hija del Sol way back as a reduction print, sold out the edition then and two years ago decided to rekindle my love for this print and revived it as "Just You and Me," a homage to nature.

Getting there, with the print reference hanging
to guide my chisels

I believe I'm finished carving, now for the scary part

Anyhow, this block was challenging because it was cherry plywood and that means 7 layers of different "stuff" that appears while carving. Although that in itself is interesting, I wondered how the different layers would take stain and oil and if that would make a horrendous mess. After roughly a week of carving, the thought of staining and messing up can be a bit daunting.

But today I felt bold and adventurous...

Stains and pigments and oil

Scary part 1 completed
A base coat of golden oak stain with:
1. Gold pigment by the sun
2. Copper pigment next layer
3. Mixed with cherry stain on the fringes

I use standard stains from the home improvement store as a "base coat" to keep the wood carving unified, after all this is not an oil painting. I apply the stains with fine artist brushes, of which I own far too many. I also want to keep the wood, er..."woody" not obliterate it with color. Stains are mostly transparent, they penetrate into the wood and darken cracks and crevices while really enhancing the carving, thus the application is always a surprise.

Raw pigments mix well with the stain and allow me to modify a bit, linseed oil acts as a binder for both stain and pigment and seals the wood. So far I haven't screwed up anything too badly so I'm happy with the results. 

Here I wanted to keep the wood showing, shine the sun gold and enhance the copper mountains. First coat was the lighter golden oak stain (MinWax) mixed with a bit of gold pigment (Daniel Smith pigment). Yummy shiny golden sun...I like it. I followed with the same base golden oak and a little copper pigment which gave a good transition between the lightest areas and the dark. Next a coating of darker cherry stain mixed with the golden oak for the front mountains, the water shadows and some of the sky. So far so good. I felt emboldened again. 

As I want the stains/pigments to mix, I work fairly fast so things don't have a chance to dry, wet on wet as it were. If I wanted harsh contrast I probably would let some colors dry before applying the next. The linseed oil which I add in bits to the mixes helps keep everything from drying too fast. I also keep a bunch of cloth and paper towels around in case some stain goes astray. A quick wipe and the error is all but gone.

I felt I needed more contrast so I added a bit of ebony stain to the cherry/golden oak mix and slopped it (very very carefully) over the front mountains, water shadows, around the woman figure (with a tiny brush) and a bit over the back sky. Oh how I love contrast...here is the final result with some details following. After about 24 hours I will decide if it needs a coating of polyurethane of if it's "a go" as is. 

Camus said: "There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night"
By adding dark ebony mix and later a few careful touches
of pure ebony stain, the light shines bright

Hija del sol up front, surrounded by gold,
ready to enter into the dark waters,
following the sun (yeah, I just made that up)

Gold, copper and umber mountains, the carving
really comes through when the crevices fill
with the dark ebony

Part of the composition with sun, mountains and Hija del Sol

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Teaching an old dog new tricks

Trick one: less is enough

Teaching this trick was tough. This dog (that's me, in case the analogy eludes you) knows how to do a festival, having bagged around 200+ in my lifetime. Those included traveling as many as 1500 miles, rain, hail, snow, 70 mph gusts of wind, 107 degree temperatures although, of course, nice weather and beautiful locales for most. So what can a smaller easy festival in an indoor setting (no tent!) teach the old festival dog?

Simplicity!

Here is my pile ready to go, hardly a dent in my muscles and hardly a load for my truck. Three print bins, a fold-a-carry-all-office desk (Flight-Table), a stool to sit on. Which makes me a bit panicky...do I have EVERYTHING???

Ready for festivaling

BTW 

Kyle Canyon Crafters Artisan Craft FairAUGUST 3-4 SAT and SUN 10am - 4pmTHE RETREAT 2755 Kyle Canyon Road, Mt Charleston NVlook for me inside the awesome lodge

Trick two: never enough tools

I have been reading about wood carving because, out of all the tasks involved in making woodcuts, this is what I like to do the most. So I am digging up all my used blocks and making some new blocks based on my existing images and making relief carvings. I started out shallow and will work to deep relief, maybe eventually go full 3-D. 

For now, I am enjoying carving every minute of my studio time and so I started reading to pick up tricks specific to relief carving. And here is an awesome one!

The traditional Japanese woodblock carver uses a toh or single blade knife to make the first cuts around lines. Here is a picture stolen from the incomparable Annie Bissett's blog https://woodblockdreams.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-about-hangi-toh-knife.html

Traditional hangi-toh knife for outlining woodblock carving

And a fine knife it is, however I'm carving cherry wood and very deeply so. The blade of my hangi-toh (toh's I own several) just felt a bit flimsy and I had to go over my lines over and over and over and... 

Always looking for efficiency, I came up with the versatile chip carving knife! Of course I already own about three different versions, the one pictured below folds for travel and has two blades, one sturdier than the other. 

Presto! deep lines, full control and quick but precise carved lines and stop cuts.

The very chip carving knife I own

Woodblock for Moonshadow and my arsenal
I am making the sky recede, the moon rounded,
and the lady of the moon will be left up front
with some rounding and reshaping

The chip carving knife being driven deep into cherry wood

My depth gauge (yeah, I have one of those) tells me
I'm about half-way through the block so that's enough
for the deepest layer

I reiterate...

Kyle Canyon Crafters Artisan Craft FairAUGUST 3-4 SAT and SUN 10am - 4pmTHE RETREAT 2755 Kyle Canyon Road, Mt Charleston NVlook for me inside the awesome lodge

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

Fluttering Above block is done!

Skeletons

The skeleton blocks are slowly but surely getting carved.
Here are pics of the second block. I'm already digging into the third! How empty they are without their little puzzle pieces...hint..hint...

Fluttering Above!

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

Blocks arriving, work continues

Blocks arriving!

Background carving begins

The garden welcomed three blocks already and two more are on the way. I have also heard that blocks have arrived at the farthest point from Las Vegas, all the way around the globe. I am very pleased with the mail system this time.

Once they get here, they need to rest right in their little boxes for just a bit. Las Vegas is very dry and this particular spring, one of our driest on record. When wood travels to humid places (which is just about anywhere compared to here!) it swells just a bit with the ambient moisture. After it returns, I leave it in the box, getting accustomed very slowly to the dry air. Once a couple of weeks have gone by, it is generally safe to open the little packages and peek inside.

Until then, you will just have to wait and see what everyone else is doing.

And that brings me to...

First skeleton block!

I had a couple of distractions like, er, LIFE and things! But I am now firmly planted in my studio and just finished one of the skeleton blocks. Basically, I remove the background leaving only the matrix for the wonderful images that everyone will bring. I have to strike a balance between a design that brings all the blocks together so they "make sense" and not put in so much detail that the overall design dominates the puzzle pieces.

Here it is, awaiting your pieces!

Print Information, don't forget!

Once you are sure of the design, remember we are writing a book! Well, okay, I am putting together a book but your words are needed to make it interesting, otherwise it's just me talking.

Please fill in the information for your print, exactly as you would like it to appear online and in the book Growing the Garden.

Here is the page to do that, right from this blog:

http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com/p/2013-fantastic-garden.html

On to block number two...

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

Ready for seeding!

Done cutting

Last pictures of the cutting process. First, one of the cats seemed interested in the project until the noise started; this is where the expression "high tailed it out of there" came from? So much for making herself useful.

Next, just wanted to point out a couple of things for the budding wood cutters out there. When cutting puzzle pieces, it is good practice to leave the cut pieces in the puzzle while cutting the next ones. This way the saber-saw has something to rest on.

There isn't much skill to operating a saber-saw. The blade moves up and down (and oscillates a little in the new ones). You stop pushing, it stops cutting. Nothing can really go terribly wrong for more than a quarter inch or so. Curves are a matter of keeping the "foot" of the saw down flat against the block and moving forward slightly while simultaneously following the curve. Tight curves are very possible and blade chatter (or breakage) will let you know when you either pushed to fast or too hard. As usual, let the tool do the work. After they are all cut out, a simple lift liberates them from their prison and they are free to fly.

And now the garden is nothing but grass, eagerly awaiting the creative seeds of all my fellow gardeners so it can grow into something absolutely beautiful!

That's a cool picture, huh?
36 hours to go!

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

Doodles 1 and 2 key blocks

Not really earth shattering stuff, just the carving progression on two of the doodle-sketches, About the Pond and Tree and a Bee.
Tomorrow I will decide on color blocks and transfer the key blocks to the color blocks. For these simple
designs, I usually transfer directly from key block to color blocks rather than using the traditional Japanese method of printing on thin tracing paper and gluing to the color blocks. But more on that tomorrow.

Block ready to carve

Basically, after printing out the doodles on Studio Paper (wax paper) and transferring the printout onto the block, as shown on last post, I go over the design with magic marker to strengthen the lines. Otherwise, they blur when carving.

Next I tint the block with walnut ink, a little diluted. This allows me to see exactly where I am carving because the  wood is much lighter than the stain.

Walnut stain makes it easy to see where I have carved

After the stain, a nice bath of linseed oil so that my chisels glide through the top layer like a knife through butter. Smells good too!

Design gone over with permanent marker

After staining and linseed oil bath, ready to carve

The progression in a quick slide show:

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

How to drive yourself mad with artful pleasure

Not having learned my lesson from the two previous puzzle projects (Web and Cairn), I merrily engaged in yet a third, the City of the World. If you have been following this blog then you know it has been quite an adventure already.
And were it not for the eager hands that were raised when I announced it was time to print the beast, I would be doing that myself. At about 40-60 prints a day (my max effort) I would be printing for 10-15 days straight. That's a lot of PowerBars.

But off I go into the great Northwest to meet my fellow conspirators and we should (should!) get the thing printed in only 3 days, maybe less. How awesome is a great team!

Now that I've caught up on posting everyone's contributions, it is time to also post what I've been doing to fast-forward this project into completion. Last time I posted a project report I believe I had just cut the blocks and mailed them.

The next few months were spent logging the arrivals, opening each with the anticipation of a gift from a fellow artist. Being organized and not wanting to have a huge task, I kept up with pictures and posts of each participant.

Next came the cutting of the background skeleton (the large blocks that hold everything together), and assembling the puzzle. Here are the photos, without further explanation:

More to come!