Woodcut going nicely

We went camping this weekend so I brought my honing compound, leather block, tools and wood with me, hoping for a few moments to carve. It was a cub scout-related event so there was little free time. I did manage about an hour to do my thing, which is hardly anything in the scope of this project, but exciting nonetheless to get started. I also brought my book The Complete Printmaker which I've mentioned before--AWESOME!!--for snippets of free time when lugging a block and carving tools wasn't appropriate. They had one cool thing in the book that I've never heard of: Plaster casting taken from an inked collagraph or relief plate. I'm intrigued for sure. Another plaster project they listed was creating a plaster plate (reminds me of the Ampersand clayboards) and then while not quite hard, engraving into it, inking and, finally printing it. One of these days I'll give them a try. If you've had experience with plaster and printmaking, do share.

So, I made some progress but not much. Here's the post on the linoleum study, which you can see in the background as my reference.










One unique thing happened while camping, for the first time we used a tarp instead of a tent--sides opened to the wilderness and all its glory. (Well, two tarps. The campers next to us--you can see their tent in the background--were a little close so I wanted a buffer. I didn't want to wake up to a bunch of cub scouts peering in.)

A little weird but fun and exciting. Going to the critter talk earlier in the day before our first night under the tarp, was maybe not the best idea. We saw all kinds of snakes and spiders, including a brown recluse and a black widow. Luckily we didn't directly encounter any said varmints under the tarp, but we did hear armadillos, raccoons, and coyotes lurking about in the night. It wasn't very cold at night but too cold for snakes, which was all that mattered (I saw a rattlesnake sunning himself on the trail earlier in the day--Yikes!).