block printing » by elke

Photo Rubber Block Print

A couple of years ago when I started getting into carving the rubber block prints I figured out how to get pictures transferred onto them to create these more realistic prints. If you have Photoshop this can be very easy. Getting the right picture can be tricky because you really need to find one that translates well into black & white. This basically just takes trial & error playing in photoshop with different photos in stamp mode. Once you find the photo that works well, it’s just a matter of transferring the picture to the rubber block & VERY CAREFULLY cutting away so the original feeling still remains. As you can see, the copy from my printer & from the rubber block are very similar but not exactly the same. That’s the fun of it. You never really know if you succeeded or not until you apply the ink with the brayer & have a go at it. I haven’t done this for a while & felt a bit rusty. It also didn’t help that my ink was very light on the block. In the past I’ve had a much better image transfer. Well, all in all I’m happy with the results & the real test was when I showed my son. He approved!

More Print Examples

Love

Fox and Rabbit

These Images were made for a set of pillows. I put some quilt polyfill on the back so the animals are actually in a bit of a relief. After sewing the outline of the animals on my machine, I masked off the outside of the shapes & used a block print that I had on hand to create the pattern in the inside.

This is the 3rd version of the Fox & Rabbit pillow combination…… I think it’s time to find a new silhouette.

Bracelet Bag

After making the rope bracelets I thought a little gift bag would go very nicely. I carved out a rubber block of the braid pattern to make a stamp. I printed it on the front of a light weight bag that I quickly sewed up. It then occured to me that it would be really easy to make a stamp of my label. Now it looks finished.