My next project is well under way. Here are some photos from the beginning of the process. I am using a print block that I made out of cork and wood. I used an x-acto knife to cut a spiral in the cork which I glued to the wood. I also glued a handle to the block.

I am printing with Opulence pigments suspended in a translucent medium on a 72″ x 72″ quilt top that I dyed a mossy green using Procion MX fibre-reactive dyes. I dyed it using low-water immersion (using far less water than usual so that the dye particles cannot circulate as freely and evenly) in two stages for a richly mottled and uneven effect.  The first stage resulted in a golden wheat colour, and the second stage overdyed the gold with an emerald green to result in this great green moss. It’s been a lot of work and I’m enjoying the process.  My inspiration has been west coast mosses and spring fiddleheads.

Here’s how it looked about an hour into the process:

I completed the first layer of dark-green pigment and followed that with a lighter hue that I applied incautiously. I decided to use a translucent lime green as the final blockprinting colour to give the spirals dimension and movement. The final product looks painterly with some obvious and intentional “errors”, and in the right light it’s a dead-ringer for velvet dévorée.

Here’s a ham shot: