As I mentioned in my last post, since the end of 2025 I’ve been exploring the world of block printing, linocut and stamp carving. I’m working on a 100 days project and documenting as I go.
I had been focusing on pink eraser stamps, because that’s what had originally charmed me into exploring this medium for myself. But as the project evolved, I realized that the eraser is a REALLY TINY medium. I’ve been switching back and forth between carving on erasers and carving slightly larger works from SpeedyCarve, the rubber linoleum alternative made by Speedball. My drawing skills improved considerably over the first 20 days of the project, and my carving skills also improved – to an extent!
As I worked through the first 20 or so days of the project, I realized that what I really wanted to try was printing on fabric. I got my hands on some fabric block printing ink (not exactly easy to source around here – anyone have any suggestions?) and had fun making simple stamps from craft foam to test it out. And once that worked I played with my Watson’s Mill carved print from earlier and explored the world of gradient or rainbow prints, using more than one ink colour at a time.
Right around this time, I watched a free online webinar by 3 Dotted Penguins on repeating patterns in block printing. To say I was inspired would be an understatement! I had been curious about tessellations and they were on my list of things to play with. In exploring the idea of repeating patterns, I came up with the idea of carving 2 by 2 inch tiles instead of erasers, and as the poem said, that has made all the difference. Obsession unlocked.
Once I had a critical mass of tiles, I was able to try the idea that had been percolating in my head for weeks: I printed them on fabric and when that worked, I printed them in a line down the leg of my favourite jeans.
Here’s a short video I shared on YouTube about block printing on my denim jeans – it honestly turned out even better than I could have imagined!
Yes, these are the same jeans I repaired with boro a year ago when I slipped on the ice and tore out the knee. Now they’re my extra-favourites! At first I was going to stamp a row around the cuff, but I like the idea of the stamps running up parallel to the seam even better.
And now I’m in love with the idea of making fabric patches. It plays so well with my ongoing love of textiles, upcycling and now linocut and block printing. I have no shortage of recycled material in my stash!
I also continued carving on erasers throughout this time, but I am finding the erasers a little limiting. I keep thinking my drawing and carving skills are improving (they obviously are!) but when I go back to erasers, they are so small that I find myself frustrated. I was really happy with some of these, like the yellow sun with rays. Others, like the text “hello” that I tried to make fancy with intersecting positive and negative space were just too fussy for such a small space.
Still, they have been good experience for exploring patterns and ideas about how things can fit together. As I said in the far right one, I got the theory down – now I just need a few hundred more hours to hone the execution!
So that’s roughly 2/5 of my block printing 100 days project. January and February are good months to be inside playing with art, and I’ve managed to draw, ink or print something every day so far. We’ll see if I can keep on it as winter starts to break!