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Still trying new things.

This weekend I dove into a new medium. Block prints.
I met a guy that told me he made designs on t-shirts using block prints. That never occurred to me! Traditionally I always thought of this process only as pressing the print on paper. I mean, I felt so silly when he told me because of how surprised I must have seemed.

I think conversations like this are important. Sometimes you just need a little nudge to try out new things.

I doubt he even knew the cause and effect that this conversation would have. I got a block print making kit of my own and figured out how to do it.
I decided to use this activity to help me pass the time as my wife recovered from her surgery last week. I was sitting at home as she slept, ready to get her anything as she needed it.

I wanted to accomplish two things:
  • I wanted to learn how to make block prints
  • I wanted a t-shirt with the American Bandito logo on it. 

So that's what I set out to do.

I printed out a backwards version of the logo because it will be facing down when I use it, but facing up when I carve it. Then I rubbed the back of the paper with a pencil covering it in pencil lead set the lead side down on the block and traced the logo on to it.

Carving out the mask part was fine. The tough part was the lettering. Oh man, I didn't think about that when I started. I decided I needed to use an Exacto knife on the letters after the first few.

When I finished I posted it on Instagram.


What happened next was great! Holly Meyers who I spoke with on episode one of the show saw the picture and left a comment about how she's always wanted to try making block prints. After commenting back and forth with each other, this inspired her to make a block print out of one of her paintings.

See what I mean? That conversation that sparked my interest then gave another person a nudge to do it too. I love that!

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Location: Madison, WI, USA

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