A friend recently introduced me to the shockingly simple project of making photo woodblocks. It is one of those projects the execution of which is, in fact, so simple a not terribly bright child could pull it off. The collection of necessary materials can be a bit (but not overly) time consuming, depending on what you have around the house. I have slowly been collecting items for this little project over the past couple weeks and decided to give it a test run.
WHAT YOU NEED:
Photographs printed on printer paper.
I was just experimenting, so mine are kind of crap - I just grabbed a few things from my FB page, dropped them into Paint to mess around with the sizes, and printed them on a normal printer. I suspect it works better if you take a bit more care in printing and sizing.
Wood, Canvas, or Some Other Medium.
I went with two normal wood blocks (but none of my pictures were sized right, so I didn't use them), ceramic tile (made for water colors), and a strip of Balsa to use for postcards.
The video I watched only dealt with wood. I was curious what they would look like on canvas, so I decided to try that as well. Also, I have a thing for items that are extraordinarily wee. They make me laugh and I like them. Blicks sells tiny little canvases (~$3.00 for 5).
Gel Medium.
You can also buy this at Blicks or any art store. The person at the store says Modge Podge is slightly cheaper and should work, but is less transparent and will give the picture a milkier quality.
You don't need paint, but I was curious what it would look like if I painted the canvases or wood.
WHAT YOU DO:
Cut your picture to fit the medium.
Paint the Gel or Modge Podge onto the wood/canvas (or the back of the picture – I tried both and it didn’t seem to change anything). Be careful not to get the Gel Medium on the back side of the photograph, as it will make life more difficult later on.
Press the picture down, making sure to smooth out air bubbles.
Let dry for 8-12 hours.
Feel free to use some old heavy law books to weigh things down...
Take a wet rag and gently rub the paper.
Watch out for the edges of the photograph – it was a little tricky to not accidentally rip the image. I also found that once the majority of the paper was removed it was easier to remove the remaining residue by hand instead of with a rag.
And, well, that is pretty much it…
If you use Balsa, it is fairly fragile and cracks easily. I cut it when it was still slightly damp, which seemed to help prevent cracking.
I am going to turn the Balsa photos into cards and postcards. One cool way to avoid having to write on the wood or use blah paper is to repurpose some scrap of paper from around the house and use tea to dye it. I went with the cover from a LR article (sorry Kurt). Just leave the paper in the tea (or coffee, depending on how dark you want it) overnight. You can either hang dry or dry in the oven, depending on the feel of paper you like. Then go nuts!
Well friends. That concludes Bob Ross Day. Next up, button necklaces! (But I wouldn’t like, hold your breath or anything.)
