One of my very favorite of my own prints is "casting the net”.

This print began as a piece of plywood salvaged from my neighbor’s scrap pile. Because the piece was long and thin I wanted to focus on the waves and did it vertically rather than a more traditional horizontal landscape. I carved the waves, leaving lots of feedback in the sky to look like wispy clouds. On the reverse side of the wood I used a wire brush to bring up the natural grain of the wood.

On the big press I printed the reverse side first onto BFK.  Just a light amount of blue.  Then on the wave side I printed a darker blue for the waves and at the same time, the brown for the boat.  You can see how I also used a wire brush to bring up the grain of the wood on the boat.  I used chine colle for the sail.  I then printed the wave side and boat onto linen.  This time I appliqued the sail on and added more texture with stitches.  What you don’t see in the last picture is the net that I embroidered on being cast from the boat.  The linen piece has since been sold and moved to the East Coast but I still have the paper prints, in my flat file.  Maybe I’ll frame them for the shop, we’ll see…

However, the point of my story is, and I do have one, I’m stitching this boat.  I’m recreating my print in plush. There will be waves, an anchor, fish and a net.  And I even have some of the sail fabric left.  I’m so excited and it is turning out even better than expected.

technical note: carving commercial grade plywood is a difficult, so if you are looking for precision or fine detail stick to shina.  If you are determined to use plywood, make sure to sharpen your tools before you start and just have fun.  If there are knots in the wood, think about how you might incorporate them into your piece because they’ll mess you up.