I recently completed a 5 week course at the local art museum in Japanese woodblock printing and calligraphy. I love all kinds of Asian art, and I was looking forward to this class for months. We did a wood block carving and print, made a name stamp and did some calligraphy.
The first day of class, we had a Japanese model come in and we all did sketches of her in different poses with props. This pose with the fan was my favorite and the one I used to make my woodblock. I cropped it to just the corner of the fabric and her arm and hand holding the fan.
The final print on good Japanese rice paper. I'm happy with the print, though I do feel there is a bit of empty space on the right hand side, but I'm not sure what to do with it. Possibly do some light sumi-e painting in the background, cherry blossoms or something.
There is also the red name stamp. We got to carve our own with the same wood we used for the print, but obviously on a much smaller scale. I used a cherry blossom because it was more fun than just my initials.
My name stamp. Traditionally, they are carved into soapstone, but since we were doing our own, we used wood. I have a little cheap soap stone stamp that came with a Chinese calligraphy set I bought years ago. I'd love to get it carved!
The wooden stamp we carved, next to my little soap stone stamp and a chapstick for size comparison.
On the last day, last week, brush calligraphy!! We practiced these for a while and then did them on highest quality museum quality board, complete with name seal. I love these and I really want to frame and hang them up.
"Joy"
"Zen Meditation"
"Spring"
Just finished another set of homemade coasters, this time as a
housewarming gift for friends of ours. The ones I made for my own home
were made from decorative papers, and one was my own drawing. This time,
I did little Chinese ink paintings to make into coasters.
After the paintings were finished, I gathered up the supplies to make the coasters. I have a box of 3.75"x3.75" white tiles left from the last set I made. I also cut up pieces of thin, sticky back cork for the bottom. I cut the cork a little smaller than the tiles so it doesn't show from the top.
After attaching the cork to the tiles, it was time to fix the drawings to the front. I brushed a nice, even coat of Mod Podge adhesive to the front of the tile, and carefully laid the drawing on top. With a large, flat paintbrush, I smoothed down the paintings from the middle outwards to set it in place, and then I put a clean sheet of paper over the top of it and used the brayer to really glue it down. After the paintings had some time to dry on the coasters, I brushed another coat of Mod Podge over the top to seal it. You have to be careful here, because some of the ink smeared. I used black Chinese ink, which was pretty waterproof. I also used Chinese watercolors for the colored parts, which was not so waterproof, and I got a little bit of smearing. I had to be extra careful not to brush over and over, and cause more damage. Once that layer had dried, I painted one more layer over the top with no fear of any more smearing. I left them to dry over night, and then sprayed them with one more layer of a clear, waterproof varnish. And voila! Nice, new coasters.
