Christmas Card 2023 part 6

 Very cold, but sunny, so a good day to get up to the Studio.  Stopped by the office to let them know there was a large package on the front steps if they wanted it.  Then I got to work.  I had brought in with me my printmaking go bag, normally kept in my car, but now we are in the cold part of the year.  So I also brought my new cans of ink with me.

Before doing anything else, I put on some music.  I had brought in my jazz/blues collection, and from this selected my burned copy of Devil's Slide by Bob Brozman, a favorite going back to my days in Virginia, and written about on this blog back in February of 2020.  Cleared off my table, got the pre-cut card stock out of drawer of my printing table, and got stuff out of my print bag.  As expected, the old ink cans were pretty much dried out, not to mention cold, so I used my new ink.  The can of Portland Intense Black opened very easily, and the ink came off the surface nicely with one of my ink knives.  Used some blue painter's tape to mask out areas I didn't want to ink on my card block.

I was making good progress when Molly showed up.   (she has an event this weekend, and was making product for that) She liked the music, comparing it to Django Reinhardt, which is an apt comparison, as Brozman played a lot of the music of the early 20th century, when Reinhardt was active.    She got to work on her project, and I continued mine.  

I had prepared 12 pieces of card stock, which is more cards than I need right away, but would allow for a few mistakes along the way.   Which is good, as on two of them, the paper shifted while printing, making them unprintable.  (a problem occasionally with hard, slicker watercolor paper) and a few I just thought weren't satisfactory.   I will use those for practice of color, and still have plenty to go out in the first batch.

My disc ended as I was cleaning up my ink.  Molly was still working, so rather than put on another one, I left it to her to decide what she wanted to listen to.  I brought home all the cards to dry there, and to begin the coloring when they are ready.  At least I can listen to Christmas music on my computer while I do that.