I had to interrupt our week of adventures to get some printmaking done.  I’ve been in a printmaking funk lately, nothing was working, not happy with inks, not happy with fabrics, ugh.  I wasn’t quite ready to totally abandon ship, but close.

Luckily for me the Print Zero deadline is looming.  As in, I should have mailed my prints already.  I know I’ve talked about it before and have actually printed a bunch of prints, but wasn’t entirely happy with the results.  Tonight I’m happy. 

I used another stitched plate, lots of bright colors, I was really careful applying the ink and, done.

The plate is based on a Vera Neumann tea towel design.  The title is “Still Life with Vases”.  It’s a limited run of 15 with 3 artist’s proofs.  If I use the plate again, I’ll change up the colors.  But we’ll see. 

And while I was in a mess, I printed up a few more sunshine prints.  This is the plate, all inked up, sitting on my little press waiting for some paper.

What I’m finding with these plates is that they only last about 15 – 20 copies.  The stitching gets mashed down under the pressure of the press and the lines aren’t as crisp as I’d like.  I’ve got some thread that I don’t like to used for stitching because it is too stiff, it might be just the thing I need for these plates.  But they are fun to play with.