Mostly lino printing

Ich möchte gerne ein Kaffee bitte!

Here's my latest postcard.  I was playing with Chatgpt to generate the image, so the art is not my own. Here's my artistic critique:

What I like: 

I like the feel of the image, it reminds of that first sip of good coffee on a cold morning...  The brown, a mix of burnt sienna and black, is dark enough to work well as a print but feels much cozier to me.  I'm pleased with it and happy enough to send it out.  I also played with making less of a mess while printing so there's less ink on the backsides. Specifically I wiped my hands on a rag right before touching any paper...

Room for improvement:

I might have done a better job cleaning up the chatter marks in the border. I'm generally a big fan of chatter marks but they may be a bit distracting. 

Molly Hashimoto uses a T square to guide her border lines; that's probably a good idea. 

I never get tired of these

I'm still struggling with small cuts and this has a whole bunch of them. I had to recut a lot of the small spiky bits and they're still not clean. The very small cuts toward the right of the cup should be more parallel. 

A couple of things to mention... First, it would be good to check on my inventory of postcards before I start printing! I printed 9 and ran out.  Which is too bad because the ink had exactly the right consistancy and was printing super well. I'd mixed in a new (to me) ink thinner (burnt plate oil) and had gotten it just right. The second run of 9 today was not quite as successful and I fixed a couple of spots with a brush. 

I got tired of printing coffee cups and still had some ink left, so I printed 4 general purpose cards with an old image which used the last of the ink.  I've been needing some cards...

I also test printed a block I carved out while listening to a lecture. I wanted to try out this method for leaves.  I found it difficult to space the cuts correctly, and even to put the cuts exactly where I want them.  That's why this practice is a good idea. I think I'm going to print in black or dark green on a light green surface.

I still need to carve something for the Molly Hashimoto class; I have two ideas sketched up but haven't gotten to them yet. 

In the non-lino world, I'm still working on the last rice bag (almost done with 3rd side) and nearly done knitting the first of two panels for the Age of Aquarius poncho.  The Alabama Channin class got pushed out a month. I started an Andean Pickup Band and it's come back to me quickly, including how to work with a pickup cross. More on that in a later post.  I also started putting drywall tape on the edge of my mosaic substrate, which is annoying complex because it is round; I did about 1/4 of the table before giving up for the day.

I made this chicken and rice with carmelized lemons; it was tasty! But way too much rice. I think next time I would add more onion/shallot and garlic, more red pepper, more lemon, and 6 thighs, and maybe reduce the rice to 1.5 cups (and 3 cups of stock).