Other Creative Dabblings

I was originally going to post about my Sew Weekly project today, but it isn't done yet. Oops. So instead, I think on Fridays I will post about my non-sewing related creative dabblings. As hinted at by yesterday's bird skull pendant, I like to try as many different kinds of arts and crafts as possible. A running joke with my sister is that whenever I see something remotely handmade and cool, I say, I want to learn to do that! Or when I'm out with Elaine, she gets annoyed when I refuse to buy things because I could make it myself. Unfortunately, some things, like carving wood, building furniture, and glassblowing are currently out of reach due to either money, space, or other constraints. They're awfully large hobbies, you know. But two summers ago, I was lucky enough to get to dabble in a little bit of letterpress and printmaking. I only took a month's worth of classes, but it was enough to get a taste of setting type, putting in all the wood blocks (I forget what they're called), choosing ink, and running the huge letterpress machine. While fun, I don't know that I'll ever get back into it -- the classes are kind of expensive, and finding a studio to do it at might be tricky once we move to LA. Honestly, I'd rather invest my time in sewing, since I already have a sewing machine at home!

Even though letterpress isn't something I want to do for the rest of my life, I did get some cool prints out the class. Since my husband and I were about to get married, I decided that my big project would be to make a print from one of my favorite silly romantic poems, "The Owl and the Pussycat." It's so light and whimsical, and while my husband isn't particularly owlish, I do love cats. I also learned to carve linoleum blocks to make an awesome linocut image to go with my set type. And of course, choosing a pea-green ink seemed only natural!

I know they're supposed to be dancing, but let's just say they got tired.

I still have a couple of lino blocks left, so I'm toying with the idea of making a couple blocks for printing on fabric. Should I do something sciencey? cat-related? abstract? Too many options!!