Carving out our new home

Stephanie and I have been looking forward to taking a linocut class with Eric Rewitzer for a long time, but we didn’t have the time (or space of mind) to do so until February. The class took place at 3 Fish Studios, Eric and his wife Annie’s inspiring studio, set in the Dogpatch with an incredible view of San Francisco Bay.

I knew in advance that I wanted to make a print of our new digs to use as a card announcing our change of address. I had in mind a very controlled, high-contrast style, but the end result looked almost dreamy, like an illustration from a children’s book (about a girl looking out the window on a rainy day).

Compared to what the other folks in the class produced (check out Stephanie’s amazing print of her hennaed feet), mine turned out kind of plain, but over time its quiet simplicity has grown on me. Plus it’s our home! We ended up sending all the cards to family in the US and France, but I held on to one ghost print (a second print from the same inking) to eventually frame and hang.

Reverse sketch for a linocut print
Tracing a reversed photo of our building

Transfering sketch to linoleum for a linocut print
Transferring the sketch to linoleum with transfer paper
The photo, the linoleum with sketch, and the sketch
Ready to carve
Carving linoleum for a linocut print
All those skinny lines are hard work!
Linoleum inked and read to print
The finished linocut plate, inked up and ready to print
Finished print of our condo (as a card)
Voila! The finished card.

3 Comments

Very cool! Can’t wait to see the real place!

Katie

where is the photo of the ghost print? I always love the ghost print more than the original print. Seemed like a very fun and intensive class. Glad you could do it and thank you for my present of it in the mail.

Katie, I included the photo of the card at the bottom because it was the most representative of the prints I made. The ghost print is a little different, kind of gray and fuzzy (come to think of it, I believe a few of the cards I made were also ghost prints) and doesn’t have the same gravitas as the initial inking.

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