Last year, I started taking a woodblock printing course at CIC (Centro Integrado de Cultura), my local cultural institute.
Many people have told me this used to be a vibrant hub for all artistic practices in Florianópolis, the island where I live. Those same people protest the current state of the place: only a couple of workshops survive from the varied roster they once had; the artistic library, full of rare books, recently closed to make space for yet more private projects; the exhibition rooms are empty… the space is a ghost of the artistic propeller it once was.
Although the situation is awful— and a common topic around the studio— this woodblock printing class has been going strong for over 25 years under the guidance of Bebeto (Carlos Roberto Nascimento de Oliveira). He’s an experienced and respected printmaker who has taught hundreds of artists over the years. I’m super honored to be one of them!
I heard about the class through a friend and counted down the days until the sign-up period. It’s an entirely free “class” that works more like an open studio with Bebeto’s guidance. During my first year in the studio, I worked on a variety of projects, learning different woodblock techniques and expanding my general printmaking skills.
Printmaking is one of my favorite mediums of all time, and this year, I’m excited to continue experimenting! Today, I visited the studio for the second time this year. This is the project I’m currently working on and the progress I’ve made so far:
I spent my vacation months thinking about what I wanted to explore for my next piece, and during my swimming sessions at the pool, inspiration struck: the straight lines of the tiles dancing with the curved lines of sunlight reflecting on the water’s surface created a beautiful and intriguing scene I knew had potential for a woodblock print. I kept thinking about it, took reference photos, and ended up with two distinct designs based on the concept – after a few failed drafts. Here they are:
I had a hard time deciding which option to work on and eventually chose to go ahead with both. (Although I’m slightly bothered by the fact that they’re very different in every way except the inspiration point, which doesn’t make for a particularly cohesive or dynamic duo. Maybe I can build a more unified collection by creating a third piece to tie them together. For now, I’ve decided to start with these two and see how the theme evolves.)
Since Design 1 was much more complex to print, I decided to start with Design 2 — but of course, the art gods had other plans!
I measured the MDF board three times, just to be sure, then carefully cut it. Somehow, during that process, one of the boards ended up narrower than the other, which would’ve resulted in too small a square and a lot of wasted wood. So I took it as a sign to move forward with Design 2 instead — after all that indecision, it felt right to just go with the flow. I’m glad I had another design ready and was able to avoid wasting material.
During that same studio visit, I printed out Layers 2 and 3 of Design 2 and transferred them to the board I had cut and sanded (not without asking for help first to make sure I had the steps right — for some reason, this part of the process always confuses me. I’ll try to take notes next time, and maybe even post them, so I can refer back later).
I spent the week carving Layer 2 but of course I also made a few mistakes in the process. I got a bit rusty over the vacation months, and my hands definitely suffered. I have hypermobility in many parts of my body, especially in my hands, so the force and finger bending required for carving can be quite painful. I try to work around it by using tape to avoid overbending and building up calluses. Despite the pain, the first week back was a lot of fun; I thought about carving all the time and treated it like a little reward at the end of the day or during my free moments. I missed this creative practice over the summer.
This week at the studio, I went in with the intention of 1. Prepping the board for Layer-1, 2. Fixing my mistakes on Layer-2 and 3. Sharpening one of my tools for Layer-3.
I managed to do all of that — and still had time for a coffee break with the lovely folks at the studio, complete with cake and chit-chat:
1.
First, I cut the third board for my project: I made sure to measure it carefully this time, using a template made from the printed designs. I saw-cut it, sanded the surface and edges, and marked it. I made this 3rd board slightly larger so I could carve the edges with a ruler and get a more accurate result for this layer. However, later in the day, I realized I could probably have just used the back of one of the other boards for this layer. I’m still deciding whether to save this board for another design or go ahead and use it as the base since I can reuse it later anyway.
2.
I fixed my mistakes using wood putty, which I applied with a makeshift spatula — going a bit overboard so I could file and carve it down to match the rest of the design once it dries.
3.
I managed to sharpen my very small carving tool, but it still didn’t work for Layer 2. My edges were rough instead of sharp, and I had to apply too much force — which is the opposite of what you want for control, resulting in more mistakes. I had to find another technique and ended up using a straight blade to cut along both sides of the thin lines to remove them. This gave me much cleaner lines and more controlled curves. I forgot to paint my board before starting to carve — again — so halfway through I grabbed my trusty highlighter to help distinguish what had and hadn’t been carved out.
Check out last other studio logs:
Context note: “Xilo is a nickname in Portuguese for woodblock printing. It’s a prefix related to wood, and it has Greek roots.“
‘Till next week, crafters!