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Camper love

Today.

Camper

I was a camper kid so I am SUPER excited about making this a print!!!

MY Nashville

"My Nashville" came to being right after I moved here. I met a couple friends.. all of us from small towns.. we just fell in LOVE with our new city. The first time I recall saying the phrase "My Nashville" was on the way back from a multi day kayak trip with my friend originally from South Carolina. As we came around the bend and saw our beautiful skyline we both said together "AW! Its My Nashville!" We laughed that we said the same thing and ended up watching the 4th of July fireworks over our skyline from the interstate that night.
That wasn't the last time I said it. I find myself saying it alot. Maybe on the way back from a long trip or after shopping a couple miles away.
Now, I have called Nashville my home for 7 years and have found its not only my friend and I who say it... alot of people do. Even my little 4 year old daughter started screaming "My Nashville!" as we turn the bend on the interstate.. turns out, she loves this city too! So here, I made a print for all of us who call Nashville "MINE"!

To purchase visit MY ETSY STORE

backwards life.

Sundown Print Pt.2

We are just gonna ignore the test print pictures ok? They just arent pretty. I usually use some cheap paint or mix up a color I'm not sure about so that I'm not wasting my good color ink. I test at least once or sometimes up to 10 times. This is the process where I get all my kinks out, find where I didn't carve out enough, or have uneven lines. 

This is also where I see how bad my mistakes are... like really big mistakes. I made a very large mistake at the beginning so I had to figure out how to make it work. I was humming along until my cutter took a long route straight out of the sun. I seriously screamed out loud thinking there was going to be NO way to fix it. The good thing is sometimes mistakes make a design even better. 

I was really unsure of the colors to use so I asked everyone in the group if they wanted any specific colors. It came out to be a broad range so I tested out colors thinking I would use one singular color on the print. I promised one person I would do an ombre' look thinking it would be to difficult and time consuming to do multiples. I ending up loving it and doing the most of those since it turned out easier than expected. 

Here is step 2 

Block inked with a brayer and ready to be pressed. 

I use a mat the same size of my paper to help with the centering of the image. With luck I set the paper, lightly rub it with my hands to make the image adere so that it dosent slide around while pressed. I dont have an actual press at this time but I like hand pressing so I am ok with that. :) I use a baren which is like a flat disk with a wooden handle(or a wooden spoon) . Then finish it by pressing with my hands one final time.

Cranking the greens and blues out. I am in serious need of a drying rack.

My dining nook turned studio. It hasn't seen food very much lately. 

Final Blue/Green

I seriously get ecstatic when I roll out the ink.

I am need of one more brayer if I am gonna do the ombre' more often. It worked with two but I had to do alot of mid washing.

Final Red/Orange

Click here to see Sundown print Pt.1 if you missed it.