white line print

Dahlia daydreams and a little bit of printmaking

| ehpyle

dahlias by ephpyle

If you’re addicted to looking at flower photography on instagram like I am, you’ll know it’s still dahlia season. (See #dahliaseason.)  My own garden dahlias disappointed me this year. I picked up the plants at a local garden center without paying much attention to the variety and I ended up with these short, mottled white and magenta flowers.(above) They still look pretty enough, but I found the high contrast of bright pink and white together a bit jarring and I didn’t like the way they looked with other flowers.

dahlias of 2014 by ephpyle

In past years, I’ve grown softer pink and yellow dahlias, like these flowers from 2014 (above and below).

bright dahlia by ephpyle

So, I’m already dreaming about what I’m going to plant next year. So far, I’m thinking about ‘café au lait’, ‘apple blossom’, or some type of pompon dahlias like ‘Eveline’, all pictued below. (Photos are not mine – they’re from wikimedia commons, details and links at the end of this post.) If you have any particular favorite dahlia varieties to recommend for growing next year, I’m all ears.

cafe au lait dahlia
apple blossom dahlia
pompon dahlia ‘eveline’

My daydreams also led me to make some dahlia-inspired white line wood cuts.

dahlia white line print by ephpyle

Clearly, pink dahlias have been on my mind. I wanted these prints to be softly colored but now, when I look at them in comparison to photos of real dahlias, they look positively washed out and I’m not sure what I want… Other than to grow more and different dahlias next summer.

dahlia white line print 2 by ephpyle

Photo credits for dahlias I’ve never grown:

Cafe au lait dahlia:  Mark Twyning (Marktee1) via wikimedia commons

Dahlia ‘apple blossom’ : Mark Twyning (Marktee1) via wikimedia commons

Dahlia “eveline’ : Mark Twyning (Marktee1) via wikimedia commons

Summertime white line prints

| ehpyle

white line printing

I’m so excited to share these new white line prints, and I’ll be the first to admit that they are a little outside my usual range. Usually, I’m mucking around in natural greens and brown for plant-inspired printing, so I must have been craving the simple bright colors, just as all of us have been craving sunshine after a long cold winter. IMG_0771

Working from old instagram photos, I chose two beach-related shots. Can you tell I’m ready for summer?

beach umbrella

First, I carved and printed this simple beach umbrella photo. Carving so many converging lines has some challenges, but I’m happy to say I persevered. I particularly like the mottled effect the printing process left in the sky section of the print.

white line print beach umbrella

This same effect also enhances the look of the next print I worked on, of these vintage-y, semi-rusted beach buckets. I was really happy with the way this print was coming along, and even posted my progress on instagram.

white line printing buckets

When it came the background, though, I lost my way. In the photo that inspired this print, the buckets sit on a painted step, but I wasn’t sure that would read very well in the print, so I split the background with an arbitrary horizon. Bad idea.

whitelineprint.buckets

Thankfully, I didn’t actually carve the area around the buckets, so I can change it on my next print. Still, I have to figure out how to treat that background. I have some ideas, but I’m all ears if you have any suggestions.

New white line print: Succulent garden

| ehpyle

white line print and block I’ve just finished a new white line print and I feel like I’m finally starting to get the hang of thie printing technique. I posted last summer about taking a white line printing class. Since then, I’ve been dabbling away at printing, but my efforts have been invigorated by joining a white line print maker’s group organized by Amy McGregor-Radin and my summer instructor, Lisa Houck. I am thrilled and grateful to be a part of this wonderful group of makers and artists. For my latest print, I went to my favorite iphone app, instagram, for inspiration. (If you’ve been reading this blog for long you know that I love instagram in a way that borders on unhealthy.) I picked a photo of my succulent planter. IMG_0711 Looking back at the photo now, after spending so much time working on its facsimilie, I feel both surprised and a little disappointed. I had thought it a better photo the first time around. white line print - succulent 1 I won’t go into details of the printing process, since (1) I am hardly an expert (2) I’ve already posted a rough outline of the process here and (3) I am already thinking ahead to the next one. While I love the soft washes of color, I’m already planning what to do differently for my next print. But that’s the creative process, isn’t it?! Always thinking, planning, making, and moving on.