Wedding Gift

[dinerfiend]

Here's a print that I made to commemorate the wedding of one of my best friends and his partner. I used the "jigsaw" method by cutting out the shirts with an Xacto knife, using Daniel Smith black to ink up the key block, inking up the shirts in their respective colors, then fitting the shirts back into place on the key block. I then put the whole thing (key block plus purple and blue shirts fit into place) through my Econo Etch, and here's the result. It seems this jigsaw method has many possibilities as an alternative to multiple-block printing and reductions.

[JenZ]

This is great!

I've never done the jigsaw method... would love to see your work in progress & blocks too! Do you find it complicated?

Jen

[bridog]

wow...lucky couple to be getting an original block print
well done!
I like doing jigsaw on occasion also...a little tricky for the cutting part (depending on size of areas to be out) but the advantage is you can apply additional colours into a single block and there is less printing involved.

[dinerfiend]

Thanks, folks! The most complicated part was inking up 3 separate pieces with 3 separate colors at the same time and pulling prints with the same level of rich, dense color saturation for all 3 colors. I discarded many prints because only 1 or 2 of the colors transferred relatively flawlessly. It seemed like at least one of the three colors always looked faded or spotty or "ghosty." It didn't help that I was using fantastic Daniel Smith water-soluble ink for the black parts and uneven, gloopy, oily (?) Speedball water-based ink for the blue and purple shirts. I'll have to get some pictures of the 3 separate pieces and post them! As for cutting the shirts out with an Xacto knife, it was relatively painless---although I did scratch up my bench hook/inking plate cutting on top of it. D'oh!

[bridog]

the speedball ink might have started to dry on you before printing I suspect. Tip: lightly mist or dampen your paper (just slightly damp to the touch..don't soak paper thoroughly or your ink would bleed).

I use a thin plastic cutting board when I am cutting using xacto knives and set my pieces onto non-slip shelf liner material to hold them in place. Usually purchase my stuff at a discount store as it's fairly inexpensive.

[dinerfiend]

Ooh, great tips! I wouldn't have thought to use a cutting board. Because I sadly already ruined my inking plate/bench hook by slashing away at it with the knife and have already purchased a new one, I was going to just keep using that. However, a cutting board is a much better idea. Also, great idea about how to prevent slipping while cutting!

[cristineparks82]

Congratulations on your wedding! This is a great gift that you've receive.