Yep, I think we have to acknowledge that face masks are part of life and a new “normal” for a while. Fine — I accept and embrace this challenge and so can you! Introducing Starpointe Studio’s original, hand-printed designs and practical, customizable features like adjustable nose wire and ear bands, filter pocket, and multiple sizes (see size chart at bottom of page). No more foggy glasses!

Washable 100% cotton face mask pattern was initially developed with expertise from Sarah Havens of Havens Millinery, and refined to its current form in true collaborative fashion in rural Kentucky, USA.

Starpointe Studio is committed to sustainable and compassionate creation — for every mask sold, we will donate $1 to Heifer International USA.

Buy yours today in my online shop (face masks) OR on my Etsy page — new masks will be added as they are completed.

Sarah Finn wearing the moth mask in royal blue fabric.

Profile of Dan Price wearing the bird wing design in grey fabric. Shows the adjustable ear loops and fitted style.

Various cuts in linoleum, Soft-cut, and Speedy-cut materials to create the printed designs — original designs, hand-drawn, hand-cut, hand-printed in rural Kentucky, USA.

Hand printing the African Death’s Head Moth with a special fabric ink.

The post Face Masks — Wearable Original Art from Starpointe Studio! appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

The post Starpointe Studio Virtual Tour appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

I started by drawing directly on the block.

This print was originally printed with a construction steamroller at the Portland Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. The free public event was organized by Rachel Singel of the University of Louisville and supported in part by a grant from Burning Man.

The edition was printed on a large Takach Press at the University of Kentucky with printing assistance from Charles VanMeter.

The post Flight Path: From Block to Street to Press appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

Cutting the block is very physical and obviously there is a huge amount of wood chips created from a block this big!

These prints take a lot of work and planning and sometimes I don’t get things right the first time, which is easy to forget when I’m only posting the finished pieces and not every step of the process. As I was cutting the 18 x 24 inch woodblock, I realized I should have included a prey animal to allude to the hunting tradition. So, I decided that I would add a little rabbit as part of the screen printed colors.

3 of the 5 screen printed colors complete – the 6th color comes from the woodblock.

The post Spring Sprint appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

Register today!

The post Wood Engraving at John C. Campbell Folk School June 9-15, 2019 appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

– A Jackalope in black & white — a woodcut interpretation of the mythological wild-west-beast.

– An illustration for Wells Book Arts Center’s fifth chapbook, Negative Compass by Bret Shepard.

– And three wood engraved illustrations for the University of Kentucky King Library Press’ upcoming letterpress publication, “Ma non e una cosa seria” (But it’s not really serious, 1917), a Luigi Pirandello play translated from Italian by Ann Colcord for the University of KY’s King Library Press. A comedy in three acts following a wealthy womanizer and the homely/humble manager of a boarding house. The book will be available late 2018 from the King Library Press.

The post Cool Inspiration – New prints! appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

The conference theme is “Go West.” In that spirit, Gillespie sold the Jackalope portfolio exchange theme to 23 participants: “The frontier is forever mysterious, and popular mythology has forever been a part of the lure to travel to the West… Certainly, there must be wild, enchanted species still hiding away in the lost recesses of the back country… If there is a single favorite illusion that captures and thrills us most, especially when we think of going West in America, it may be the idea that there are members of Lepus townsendii, the White-tailed Jackrabbit, that have evolved to grow horns.”

In addition to the great theme/subject of the portfolio exchange, Gillespie gathered a great group of artists – my kinda tribe – how could I refuse?

And so, I researched my subject and made some sketches. At first I thought this might be a late addition to my Animal Terrorists series – the origins of the legend of the Jackalope are rooted in a relative of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) – the Shope Papillomavirus. Whereas HPV corrupts cells in the human cervix to build cancerous tumors, in rabbits the papillomavirus manifests as hard, keratinized horns. I explored the idea of a micro/ macro perspective with Shope or HPV cells or a close-up of skin and hair follicles. These all seemed to obvious and literal, so I opted for a lighter comparison to Peter Rabbit and a visual relation to the symptoms of HPV. Not exactly cutesy origins…

A visual documentation of the process:

The original thumbnail sketches and the final sketch, ready to be transferred to the block.

The beginning of the cutting. This is a woodcut, not a wood engraving – a transition in scale from my usual work.

I blacken the relief surface as I cut, so I can see the drawing and marks easier.

I pulled a proof on tracing paper so I could more easily develop the rest of the composition. Combining screen printing and woodcut can be tricky, but I have a pretty good system to help match the two processes – that’s a whole separate blog post!

This stencil is ready to print. The stencil is made by coating a polyester fabric with a photo-sensitized liquid emulsion. The image is hand-drawn with opaque paint marker on a translucent film-like sheet. The areas of photo-sensitized emulsion that are exposed to UV light harden and become water-proof so that I may print with acrylic, water-based inks. Unexposed areas wash away with water to create the stencil.

Colors one and two printed – the first was yellow and the second, blue.

And the third color, a transparent darker green.

Finally, printing the woodcut on top of all that screen printed color.

I struggled with the title, trying to tie together the awkward ideas behind it and the angry, devil-horned Peter Rabbit. I settled on “The lumpy lore of the Jackalope.” Hilariously, one of the other participating artists had the exact same title – minus one word!

The transparency and overlapping of colors make magic – my favorite part is the brown eye.

View the entire Jackalope Portfolio on exhibit in downtown Laramie, Wyoming October 3 through 6 during the Mid America Print Council Conference!

Check out the black & white version of the Jumping Jackalope available for sale in my online store.

The post Jumping Jackalopes! appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

The Beneficial Insects book is comprised of 36 pages with 10 original, multi-color relief engravings. The page sizes are 6 inches high by 7 inches wide. A limited edition of 30 letterpress books and a possibility of a commercially printed version are planned. Joanne Price is the author, artist, printer and binder for this exciting project.

This project is very slow and time consuming because of the process necessary to create the illustrations. Each illustration is hand drawn and then transferred to a printing block. Then the image must be engraved/carved so that it stands in relief. The first of the print matrices to be created is called a “key block”. The key block is then transferred to 3-4 separate blocks and each is engraved/carved based on the color that will be printed from it. Then each block is printed together—one on top of the other—to create the final image. I go through many color trial proofs finding the correct color and transparency for each color to maximize each layer. If I can print three colors and make it look like there are 5 colors (with overlapping colors creating additional colors) – I am happy, but that rarely happens! After several color trial proofs, the image is hand-printed, one color at a time, one piece of paper at a time. Each image has taken an average of 4 months to complete.

My studio desk – you can see the plastic plates with transferred images on them. The obvious tools are the u-gouges and v-gouges, but there are plenty of engraving tools on hand – they are the ones with the mushroom-shaped handles.

You can see the plastic (High Impact Polystyrene) plate I have engraved/carved attached to a Boxcar base. The plates were printed on an SP-15 Vandercook proofing press. All of the proofing and color trial proofs were printed on my 1913 Vandercook Proofing press. There is one plate per color. The Vandercook presses make registration of colors a snap. the press holds the paper in the exact same spot consistently and I can make adjustments very easily with the twist of a knob or two.

The yellow and blue plates printed together.

The yellow, blue and red plates

The yellow, blue, red and dark blue plates printed together.

Just two of many, many color trial proofs. The purple petals were throwing everything off and so as I was printing the first color, the green background –it occured to me– leave the petals white! I was happy with that final decision.

White petals! And then I added the blue/violet color block afterwards to make it all pop. The key plate on this image was printed in a dark brown – far less harsh/contrast-y than the black in the color trial proofs.

Yellow and red plates printed together

Yellow, red and blue plates printed together – right before the final key plate (dark brown).

All colors, plus the dark brown key plate. In case you are wondering – the butterfly is a Great Spangled Fritillary (on a Gaillardia bloom) – not formed from the monarch caterpillar (seen at right).

The post Beneficial Insects Image Process appeared first on Starpointe Studio.

The red, orange and black are sharpie markers that I use to help define areas of the drawing on the block. The white is a powdered chalk I use to help me see areas that I have engraved – otherwise the engraved marks are too small and lack the proper contrast to see what I’m doing well.

More progress engraving textures and defining form – and my thumb for scale.

Here is the block and printed proof – the aim of this work. This block is now safely delivered to Larkspur Press and will be printed soon – after Wendell Berry’s approval!

The second commission is for an appraiser and curator in Nevada – this is to be a holiday print for close friends and family. The client provided photos he had taken of areas in Nevada and told me of his recent study of the artist Hans Meyer-Kassel. Using imagery that held great meaning to the client, I proposed a few loose drawings, settling on the one below. The resulting print, Carson City Wild, will be editioned soon. The client was kind enough to allow me to print an additional edition so that I may sell the print to others that really enjoy its spirit!

The surface of this block was stained with black printers ink and then the drawing was transfer using carbon paper. I then reinforced the drawing with micron pens (black) and add the brightest whites with a white colored pencil. the tan marks in the sky portion of the image are the raw end grain wood that my tools have exposed. The yellow squiggles seen in the lower portion of the image are remnants of the carbon paper used to transfer the image.

I have added chalk dust to the lines to help my eye see the marks and to better see the graphic contrast that will be in the final print.

The block sits on two very firm leather pillows of sand – this helps to bring the block closer to my eyes, thus saving my neck and back as well as allowing me to spin the block while I make marks with my trusty burins.

The last stage of development (before I get ready to print the edition) involves a lot of proofing and engraving and proofing and engraving, etc. I printed the block first, made some adjustments by engraving more here and there, and then printed it again to see how it looked. I did this about 9-10 times before I was pleased with the image.

The post Summer Commissions in End Grain appeared first on Starpointe Studio.