curly-wurly part 2

This is the mirror image of yesterday's curly-wurly. Now if I put them together I can get these...







So I've come to the end of my first month of block printing every day. Here's what January looked like:


Bring it on February.

curly-wurly

kin

So, the last 5 blocks are the kanji for the 5 elements (water, earth, wood, fire & metal) which, combined with the 12 animal signs, make up the 60 year Chinese Astrology cycle.


I made these blocks to use with my zodiac animal blocks I made in December. Each year is assigned an animal sign as well as an element. My animal is rat and my element is metal, like so...



Prints are available for purchase at my etsy shop.


peace

ka

moku

tsuchi

mizu

IF ... tales & legends

I have two entries for this week's Illustration Friday theme, tales & legends. Above is Sedna, the inuit goddess of the sea. Below, Theseus & the Minotaur. Both are quilted (hand and machine) fabric collages.

der kleine Eisbär

This block was inspired by Knut and Flocke. I can't come anywhere close to that level of cuteness.

seahorse

This one is for Jane, although it's just a regular seahorse, not the fancy one she wants. It's a busy week (deadlines!) so I had to do an easy one. I'll get around to the leafy seadragon eventually. It's only January, after all.

peace

still swimming

This fishy is carved on the other side of yesterday's fishy's eraser. He looks a little like he's smiling.


Here he is with his posse. (These guys were stamped before I carved the gill, so they're not smiling. Maybe they're in a bad mood.)

swimming

I'm back under water...this fish is carved on a teeny, tiny (1.5" x .5") eraser. That's really small. My eyes hurt.


update: A few people requested an image that would put the teeny-ness in perspective, so here it is.

some bright morning

I'm deviating from my underwater blocks just for today. Let me explain. I've been thinking of what to call my next set of Art*o*mat pieces - the blackbirds. I decided on I'll Fly Away, like the hymn, so that's been running through my head for days. This morning I read that Suzanne Pleshette died yesterday. I worked with Ms. Pleshette many years ago on a TV movie. She was a fast talkin', no nonsense dame. I like that. Then there's little Mia, my friend Tracey's baby. I won't go into that - suffice it to say that Mia was a tough little fighter. So the song in my head has seemed quite appropriate to my mood. That's all. Today's block is for people we've lost.

sea lion #2

I think I like the block better than the print...

sea lion

IF ... stitch

I know, it's 10:24 PM Thursday night, but I really didn't want to miss this week's Illustration Friday - stitch.

goldfish

Not a koi today, but I'm still underwater.

even more koi

I was halfway through the second fish before I realized how crooked this block was, so it's a little slanty. Oh well.

son of koi

This is carved on Blick Golden-Cut Linoleum - more difficult to carve than the Speedball Speedy cuts, but easier than traditional lino.

later dudes.

koi

In the spirit of my previous post, here's a koi.