Cards of Christmas Past: Foam Sheet Prints


Cards of Christmas Past

Foam Sheet Prints 

A few times in the 1990s I printed Christmas cards by a technique I devised that is a variation on linoleum block printing. I glued thin sheets (about 1/8 inch) of closed cell polyolefin foam to blocks of wood and cut out the image outline with an Exacto knife, them peeled away the non-printing areas.  This is much easier than cutting a linoleum block.  The block is then inked and pressed on the paper.
 
Here's  the 1995 card, an angel printed in iridescent ink on parchment paper...


And here is a card with a dove, and the printing block...






 In 2019 I used the same technique to print sets of cork coasters as Christmas gifts for my brothers.  The Christmas ball ornaments on the deer head were printed with Q-Tips.  The image references a family tradition where my mother decorated a taxidermy deer head in the living room for the holidays, a tradition continued by my brother Anson and wife Marie who inherited Dad's trophy (lower picture).
 

 
 
 


 

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