Art at the Library: Print Making 101

Kimberly-Little Chute Library has started to do Thursday Arts and Crafts Night at the Little Chute Library. It's cool because the library is closed and you still get to hang out among the stacks of books. This month, Stephanie was demonstrating print making. She has done several events/classes in the area and I've never been able to go. This time I was like I'm going to be there.

This is just like the print making I did back in middle school with the linoleum pieces and the same sharp tools. We could do any print we wanted. At first I was like Mickey mouse.. then I was like the "W" for the Badgers, well I ended up with the Brewers logo. Stephanie actually printed it out for me and it saved me the step of drawing it.

After rubbing the back of the design with charcoal, I traced the logo onto my linoleum square. Then I got to dig out what I didn't want to print. This was harder than it sounded. In order to get the logo to show, I just cut away the outline of the ball and glove and then trimmed my square around the logo so I didn't have to dig out a lot of empty space.

Since we had such a small group, we got to experiment a bit more with colors and techniques. Stephanie showed me how to use two colors and blend them together when I printed. It gave the logo a new twist.

She also showed me how to make "ghost" prints, which are essentially just a second print without adding more paint. The ghost prints came out awesome.

I can't remember the last time I had fun with print making. I dreaded this unit in school since it seemed complicated and dangerous. I could never seem to get a print the way I wanted. However, print making at the library was a blast. Maybe I will just make my own Brewer Christmas paper this year.

I can't wait to see what future art nights at the library will bring. Even though I'm not very crafty or artistic, it's always fun (and challenging) to get out of my comfort zone.