Quail! and everything else...

For my 2nd print of the year, I wanted to work through some of the issues from January, and experiment with texture. I looked at a lot of bird prints by Molly Hashimoto and others, and then picked a photo of a quail in motion to work from. I did a run of 21 and will probably discard 3 of them. Just some notes:

Not my dinner

• Looking at the feather markings on the neck made me realize I needed some narrow small cuts; on the breast, I need some chunky cuts. I practiced these on scrap linoleum, traced the photo, then carved the block.
• I mixed too much ink extender to make the ink more fluid, which made my prints too light. Once I worked with plain black ink, I had more luck.
• I used a brand new Ritualis printing press and enjoyed it so much more than using a baren. The press is pretty basic but the prints were good once I solved the ink issue.
• I had some pretty small cuts, like around the quail's eye; at one point I overinked the block and lost some of that detail. I stopped, cleaned the block, and restarted and it was fine.
• I cleaned the block afterwards with vegetable oil instead of water and the block didn't warp. This is a win.
• I used a different card stock, not a watercolor card; I hoping this takes less time to dry. I'll move the cards out into a sunny spot when they're less tacky.
• What's next? I'd like to do a quick card for April, then start working on a two color card to send in May before we leave on vacation. I'd like to find an image from our holiday after that.

Foodwise, I'm not doing anything that interesting. Friday night we grilled some salmon and opened a 2017 Azienda Agricola Valentini Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo which was wonderful. Tonight we'll have Shakshuka from a NYT recipe.

Other than that, I've prioritized some other things in January; between German classes, piano, and walking as much as possible (but still not enough), I've had to give up a lot of my art time. I'm not complaining, it's just a shift in priority. 

• I finished the 2nd Pennywise runner... Part of the apron strings on my loom broke while weaving and some of the weaving is noticeably skewed. And it's short because I miscalculated the warp length. Not sure what I'll do with it but thinking of slicing it up for parts.
• The Modular vest is done and quite wearable. I've worn it around the house on cooler days and now I want more vests.
• I'm still working on the blue cashmere sweater, knitting the 2nd sleeve now. I haven't checked the fit.
• There are 3 towels done on the loom, I'm working on the final one.