trying out wood block printing

On the latest episode of the Very Serious Crafts Podcast, I talked about trying out woodblock printing for the first time. But not wanting my experience to be wasted, I decided to take a few photos so you could see the process too!

The back story here is that my sister went to India this summer. While she was there she saw and experienced so much, learning a lot along the way. She also visited Jaipur, an area known for woodblock printing. Like, intricately printed, amazing fabrics that are truly special.

Now, maybe I should have asked her to bring me some fabric, but I have a ton of fabric and she was looking to pack light, even on the way home. So I requested some small wooden printing blocks. And she found me these!



A souvenir that you can also craft with is my kind of souvenir, so I couldn't wait to try them out. And you get to see what that looked like step by step. Here we go!




I grabbed some metallic gold block printing ink and a brayer that I bought on clearance at Hobby Lobby years ago. And a paper plate. I have no idea if that was a bad idea or not, but I had it and I avoided a lot of clean up.

If you've ever changed a diaper, you know that the color is unfortunate, but it dries pretty, so let's move on.




The ink rolled onto the stamp easily, and all that was left to do was print. So I did!



And this was my first result!

Haha! Not exactly the success I was looking for. And I did get a little worried. But I also remembered from carving rubber stamps and foam block printing that first prints often come out wrong. Let's try this again...




With a bit more ink on there, the second print came out better. At this point, I also started to think that pre-washing my fabric might have helped. Whatever...I just wanted to try this thing! Print number three was even better.



So I added a few extra elements and I'm hoping to make this into a mini pincushion. We shall see.




For fun, I decided to try the rest of the stamps and make a design. And I plan on doing more!

On my next try, I'll pre-wash the fabric and perhaps choose another color with more contrast. I may even buy different ink to see how that goes. But can I just say that this was a fun experience? It may not have been the biggest success, but it certainly wasn't a fail.

If you want to give woodblock printing a go, you can find these little gems lots of places online, usually for a few dollars each (or less if you or someone you know is visiting India!). Many thanks to my sister for bringing me home something beautiful and crafty!