printmaking Pumpkin Halloween project

 

Now was a good time to try my hand at printmaking to reclaim some strength in my dominate hand since three rupture hand tendons were surgically repaired in April. I have replaced my old wooden spoon with a new wooden spatula. On the handle, I  slipped on a foam tube and wrapped it with self grip athletic bandage to increase the diameter of handle since I am unable to squeeze and make a tight fist. 

Cutting out the sugar skull design into the soft rubber block plate was easy: like cutting butter. I zipped along using a v-gouge and in no time it was ready for printing. 

To prepare the pumpkin surface, I painted an oval with black acrylic paint and let it dry. This step will provide a high contrast to the white printing ink.

Since the block was bendable, my thought was it could wrap around the curved pumpkin to print the design on the painted surface. Yes and no. Pumpkins have ridges and the printed design was missing in its deep recesses. So I printed the inked design onto tracing paper.  Then I pressed the tracing paper onto the pumpkin surface, being sure to gently rub all areas. Remove the tracing paper. Voila!

This next step is optional. Sprinkle embossing powder over the wet inked areas. With a gentle tap to the pumpkin, the excess powder will fall away. A heat source especially made for melting the embossing powders was used. Hair dryers are not hot enough and a commercial heat gun might be too hot for melting. Use caution.

Trick or Treat.