A new hobby

(Like I need one?)

What did I buy myself for Christmas? Wait. First: do you buy yourself something? Like, a reward for surviving the holiday madness. A treat just for you for being so darn awesome? I do. I knew exactly what I wanted. I made the wishlist in November. I didn’t show anyone because I knew I wanted to get it for myself. Mid-December came and I realized I had yet to buy the stuff, so I did. A box from dickblick.com showed up on my doorstep the 23rd! What did I get? Amongst a few other things (it’s Blick, afterall! I wanted everything):

-This Speedball lino-cutter set
-Some Blick linoleum blocks
-A hard rubber brayer
-An inking plate and some ink

Basically, I made myself a little kit to get started with block printing! Around the time when I was ordering this stuff, someone on Twitter mentioned this book: Print Workshop. I checked it out quickly and ordered it right up. I didn’t even notice it hadn’t even been released until I was getting ready to check out. Oh well. It looked really nice and promising. It arrived on my doorstep a day ahead of schedule and that night I dove right in to reading.

Talk about inspiration! The book is chock-full of beautiful photos and ideas for hand-printing. I didn’t want to jump right in without KNOWING what I getting myself into, you know? I’m extremely glad I had this book to sort of ease me into the big wide world of hand-printing, specifically linoleum block printing.

That brings us to today. After a few weeks of tossing around ideas for my first stamp, I finally got the courage to put it on a block.

12.365: A new hobby

I took this photo in the afternoon. I’m proud to announce that I finished the block after my rather chilly walk to pick up my son from school. Nothing like coming home to a toasty home and a speedball cutter. My wrist is kind of sore, but nothing like the first time I experienced knitter’s elbow (HOLY MOLY). I’ll let you know when the courage works back up in my bones and I ink it up and actually start printing.

18 comments to A new hobby

  • I love the idea of block printing. Some day…. I have lots of things I want to learn to do some day. Some day….
    I really want to learn letter pressing. It only it weren’t so damn expensive.

    • yeaaah. All the stuff I bought (minus the book) had a grand total of about $30. I bought all that, extra blocks, some extra tips, and an extra handle. I took advantage of blick’s free shipping before Christmas. Michael’s and Hobby Lobby sell a lot of the stuff and they ALWAYS have coupons, so when I run out of something, I think I’ll head to one of those stores.

      • ReneeNo Gravatar

        I can almost never find lino blocks at my Michaels stores. The only ones I can find are the itty bitty pink ones (which are a dream to cut into, btw. Less sore wrists!)
        I did find a couple Hobby Lobbies, I’ll search those.

        • Yeah, I found the speedy-carve at Michael’s. They also had it at Hobby Lobby, but HL also had some mounted linoleum blocks! They’d be pretty inexpensive with the 40% coupon they usually put out every other week.

    • nono, it doesn’t have to be expensive!!!! i use magic erasers! the white kind. i get them at hobby lobby for less than $1.00 each, and i have my speedball cutter with two different size…thingies….and i have an xacto knife.

      i ordered my stuff from http://www.stampeaz.com/ though i have a dick blick coupon too that i should use…i live like, five minutes from them.

      anyway
      my former landlord/lady also stamps – leannderthal.com. it’s not expensive, and it’s so worth it because you can make cards, stationary, send mail, stamp the covers of little moleskines…which makes great gifts, or you could put them on etsy, or have them for sale in addition to prints at a craft show. do it nessa!

  • this is a medium that I have long wanted to dig into.. so to speak.
    & I am very pleased to hear that it is relatively straightforward to approach. I am looking forward to seeing your progress with it!

    • Thank you! The linoleum was a little tough to get used to at first, but I learned pretty early on that taking it slow was the way to go.

  • ReneeNo Gravatar

    Yay! I’m so excited for you to get sucked into this too! I love it and only wish I had more money to support this hobby.

    Next, try screen printing. :D

    • coupons are good! haha If I ever need to go to the craft store for something, I’m going to be sure to take a coupon with me to buy a block or two.

  • Be aware, this can be addictive :)) The stamp looks awesome, I can’t wait to see the print, cheers, Monika

    • thank you! they came out ok! my kiddo likes ’em enough to want to use them as Valentine’s. Let’s see what he says when he sees all the Iron Man and Transformers crap I’m SURE he’ll notice when we go to Target or whatever.

  • Yea for a new craft! I adore lino carving. I used to do tonnes of it back in 2005. I’d take it to my college classes and make a massive pile of shavings. The teacher hated it because I had a whole classroom watching me rahter than listening to the stats lesson.

  • i’m not going to repeat everything i said in my above reply to someone else’s comment

    but i will say, that i’m glad you used a lino block because ive been wanting to try it on that type of surface instead of using magic erasers or some material from stampeaz.com – magic erasers are definitely easy, but also tiny….and carving the white stuff i got from stampeaz has resulted in many, many hand injuries…eep.

    i live right near dick blick, and i think i might head over there tomorrow to pick up some things. i got a coupon in my email. happy stamping! lets be blog friends!!!

  • Block printing sounds like a good hobby for my wife to get into. I can probably get her the Print Workshop book. Thanks for sharing!

  • GailNo Gravatar

    I am excited to get started on my lino carving and printing. I don’t have time (right now) to read through everything you have on this site but thought it would be helpful to me. I will come back and see what you are all doing and how you do printing too. Thanks.

  • Wow Lisa, you are so creative. I wish I am too! Yes, I bought something for myself, bought fantasy books and some DVDs. That’s my hobbies – reading and watching movies.