furoshiki

xmas redux: Printed cloths

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With that Valentine post, it occurred to me that Christmas snuck through without examination of the goods I came up with this year. So I'll just intermittently toss some belated product run-downs here, scattered amongst the daily picture posts.

I decided to lay off the Gocco this year, because last time I hauled it out I discovered some of the inks had started separating and, well, it requires some coordination of resources (and covert hijacking of my work printer) to get the laser masters printed for the screens. I do love a good carved block, though, and planning for one of those enforces the need for ultra-simple design work. And ultra-simplicity is precisely the kind of design work I'm capable of during the final weeks of the year. 

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So I whipped up a two-minute binary poinsettia and put it to work on some loosely-woven fabric that I'd sewn into square, bandana-ish sized swatches. Full disclosure here: I have no idea what the precise make-up of that material is. The bolt's ultra-inexpensiveness and proximity to the muslins would suggest that it's not actual linen, possibly not any natural fiber. But it gets the job done and in a nicely neutral palette. 

And their primary purpose, apart from satisfying my printing urges? To wrap up some of the more fragile items in the gift baskets. Their ultimate purpose? Slung around Bear's neck, one makes a nifty attached-to-the-kid hankie for her perpetually runny nose. 

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Tags: block print, furoshiki, stamp, xmas

Hand-printed furoshiki

The main purpose of the cloths was to wrap up some of the more delicate items for delivery. This site came in handy. www.lovelihood.com

Bandana, hankie, same diff

Already with snot stains. But very fashionable snot stains. www.lovelihood.com

Cloths, air-drying

They stayed up, clipped to the curtain rods on the french doors for a week. www.lovelihood.com

Poinsettia lino block

Those little fibers kept clogging up the details. After every few presses, I'd scrape out the bits with a pin head. www.lovelihood.com

Poinsettia stamp, inked and gunked

Something I hadn't anticipated, but really should have... Fabric creates lint, and lint attaches readily to inked stamps, which really wasn't an issue for this larger, rubber stamp, but reducede the definition on the smaller, linoleum stamp. www.lovelihood.com

Cloth, printed

One little corner, imprinted with this year's holiday logo. www.lovelihood.com