Day 125: Spring Onions Art Card

Spring onions linocut printed on vintage cookbook page

Happy Cinco de Mayo! I hope you’re enjoying a plate of enchiladas and a nice cold margarita right now. I know there’s an actual historical event behind today, but I see it more as a great excuse for having Mexican food. I love Mexican food (it’s in my genes). I could eat it every day for the rest of my life and probably not get tired of it. Beans for breakfast? Hell yes! And what would Mexican food be without onions? Sadness, that’s what it would be.

Today’s piece is a bunch of spring onions printed onto a vintage recipe page from “Vegetarian Cookery” including such tantalizing tastebud gems as “Onions and Eggs in Cream Sauce”. Hurk. The bottom of this print didn’t come out as well as I’d like, but hey- I have plenty more pages of creepy gluten recipes to work with here.

If you’re tiring of the linocuts, I do apologize. But there are two good reasons I’ve been stuck on them lately. 1- I’m working on a big commission piece in a tiny studio, and I can do linocut work in the living room, and 2- if you want to get good at something, you need to practice it. Oh, and 2b- my lino carving tools get rusty if I don’t use them for awhile and they’re a bitch to clean. 😉

Yes, I may have a few nicks and cuts on my fingers. Yes, the ink and the palette and the brayer and the other thingamajig are kind of a pain to get out and wash up. But it’s really satisfying to spend a couple hours making a detailed carving knowing that I can re-use it in the future.

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Day 120: Pucker up!

In honor of today’s milestone- having made it 1/3 of the way through this project- I thought today’s art piece should be celebratory. Enter a linocut of the lemon (or lime) squeezer! This thing is a really essential invention if you enjoy margaritas like I do, which is why it’s pictured with my green squeezer. 🙂

Instead of paper, I tried this linocut on a pretty yellow cotton print and the detail came out well. I added another layer of fabric behind it- this awesome Mexican-blanket-esque vintage linen- and sewed it all to one of my brand new cardblanks that just arrived today. The card factory is about to open over here. I’ve been making linocut blocks like mad, and I’ll have card sets for sale in my Etsy shop any day now, so keep an eye out.

I think this card would be great to cheer up a buddy as an invitation for drinks. The inside could read:  “Let’s call in sick to work for Cinco de Drinko!” or “When life gives you lemons, order tequila.”  What do you think? Am I on to something? 😉 Thanks for sticking with me through this journey, friends!