Cutting technique

So long ago, it seems, that I began that block. But I was well into it. And then something happened--I experienced a rekindling of love of engraving, and that led to etching. For almost a year I left this woodblock. Copper replaced cherry wood. I still remember, though, my "Chinese" block--as I refer to it. When I returned to woodcut, this time with a new idea: Emeralda Dream.

Before, I had been cutting, I recall how I used to rub off the tracing paper. That was for the intricate details. With a moistened finger--to see my lines. Under the magnifier, with a lamp placed close by, I made incisions in the wood with a very sharp, tiny blade. The knife is so keen that it cut through the wood easily. I could see the grain of the wood. I avoided cutting against the wood grain because this meets resistance. I followed the design of my drawn lines, saw how my lines lay on the grain of the wood, then made incisions in the direction of least resistance of the wood grain.

Having written this and reflected on it, I liked to leaf back through my copy of The Ten Bamboo Studio, which includes wise words attributed to Confucius. To my mind, those words are analogous to the woodcutter's performance in craft and art. I compare my day's work with what I can see in the book's reproduction.

I confess that the image above is not a picture of the details of cutting as much as it is an interesting image in its own right. What I wanted to convey is the first cut around the details of the flowers. In the picture below (also a gross distortion of color, yet interesting!) you can see the knife blad--cutting along one side of a line--held at an angle. This results in a line standing in relief above the cutaway wood. Its slides slope away from the tops like the sides of microscopic mountain ranges.

You can also see other lines and how they each have been surrounded with a V-shaped cutaway. The knife is designed for this. Another knife--this one called a gouge--is for clearing away wood between the lines--and as I work I stay a safe distance away from the printable lines.

Below are the five principal players in one variation of Emeralda: Game for the Gifts of Life, played in printmaking and other multimedia studios on-line. Select these players in the Living Prints' studios and read their secrets.

	Artist's Diary	The artist provides the vision and imagery of the living print, laboring after the compelling image.
	Curator's Log	The curator is seldom seen but is always seeing to it that the living prints' records are correct and rules followed.
	Publisher's Journal	The publisher produces the bases for living prints by supporting all the players and keeping communications clear and on course.
	Printer's Notes	The printer performs many tasks to keep prints alive, crafting and designing solutions to problems the artist, curator and publisher propose.
	Professor's Papers	The professor explains the living print, the history of printmaking, and keeps the academic community informed.

Send E-mail
ritchie@seanet.com