Catspaw -- Leftovers III

They're on their way!  8-]

Catspaw

Can't wait to get my leftovers in return, and to see the whole project up on the Wingtip Press blog:  http://www.leftoversanyone.blogspot.com/

Catspaw with Cat

Time to print the kitty on the background.

Magenta seems to be a mix of red and blue, closer to blue.  I'll see how that looks.  I'll see if I want it ghostly (watered down) or more substantial (w/ white).

Nah, went with more of a burgandy kitty.

Striking, I think.  8-]  I think I'll call it Catspaw.

And here's the finished product:

Catspaw

I added my spiral initials as another graphic.

Leftovers III exchange:  http://www.leftoversanyone.blogspot.com/

Leftovers III - Background Color

First pass - catspaw coverlet background color in thalo green, thinned slightly with transparent medium.

As the theme for the exchange is "leftovers" I like the idea of recycling leftover blocks, in this case the two blocks for Foggy.

I went with a greenish color for the background and I'm thinking of a grapy-purple or magenta for the kitty cat.  I'll see what looks good when the backgrounds dry (which in this weather, could be now).

Most of the pieces of paper are 2"x7", but they vary (they are leftover bits cut down from other projects).  I only need 14 for the exchange.  The others will make nice bookmarks.  ;-]

Here's the link to the Leftovers III project:  http://www.leftoversanyone.blogspot.com/

Recycled Leftovers

Finally.  Nothing like a pressing deadline to get me, er, pressing.

Foggy ("The fog comes on little cat feet.") is what I'm going to use for the Leftovers III exchange. It's made up of two blocks -- the background, an historic woven coverlet pattern called "Cat Tracks and Snail Trails" or "Catspaw," and the cat block, which is an homage to our late cat Foggy.

Leftovers III uses up leftover pieces of printmaking paper, and I like the idea of using  "recycled" blocks for it.  Here's the original print:

I'll play with the blocks.  Print the coverlet block, then add the cat, maybe at an angle.  I'll see what moves me.  Maybe play around with colors.

Took me awhile to find the blocks.  I'm certainly not an organized printmaker.  ;- j  I knew they were somewhere at the bottom of a basket-o-blocks, and they were.  Found some others I'd wondered where they'd gotten to, so it was a productive morning's spelunking.

The Dog Ate My Artwork... ;-/

slightly chewed Foggy print

So we were on vacation -- a train trip to the midwest for our 35th anniversary -- and some of my prints fell into range of my paper loving dog, Loki:

Loki does love his Starbucks

I think it only got chewed in passing -- he was actually after a packet of Southern Winter/Northern Summer Solstice prints (the backyard series)! Luckily they were still in their plastic envelope and my son was able to rescue them before any damage was done. But Foggy wasn't so lucky.

Now that wouldn't be such a problem -- except: that particular print was up on ETSY and it had just sold! Yikes!

I didn't have many Foggy prints on hand, and none of the others were as nice as the one in my shop. So I printed up some more, and one or two of those look similar to the chewed one.

As soon as they dry I'll send one off to my patient patron. And hey, she gets a great story to go with it, right? ;-y

Foggy

Foggy, 4"x6" print on 5.5"x7.5" paper

The fog comes on little cat feet..., Carl Sandburg.

Foggy was the definition of scaredy-cat, which is probably why he lived to nineteen, far out-distancing his more adventurous sister, Smoggy, and later, Stormy. He knew when to make himself scarce, but then he was there again, creeping back into view.
I started carving a block with a Summer & Winter weaving pattern -- so named because when you flip it over, the dark/light color pattern is reversed to light/dark -- called Cat Tracks. (Summer & Winter weave coverlets were popular with the Colonial Americans, who presumably reversed them seasonally.)
I used the alcohol/baby wipe technique to transfer a printer image to a Baltic birch plywood block, which was more than adequate to carve the detailed weave pattern. I used Daniel Smith ochre water-based ink and a baren to hand-print the block onto cream-colored Arches paper.
I then carved a second block and tapped on a grey mixture of Daniel Smith black water-based ink and an opaque white etching ink, in a splotchy manner to mimic fog. I used a baren to hand-print an off-center image of the cat, as if it is just drifting into the image.
This is my SWNS07 exchange print.