Printing Woodcuts from Children’s Alphabet Blocks: A Tutorial

Spending a happy Sunday afternoon digging through the bins at the Goodwill Outlet Store, I happened upon the awesomest huge alphabet blocks.

Nevermind that both my daughters are just a bit too old for alphabet blocks–in my house, we do not turn down such things as vintage blocks, painted on two sides and featuring woodcuts of a letter and something awesome that starts with that letter on the other two sides. No, my girls helped me scavenge through that huge Goodwill bin until we’d found every block we could–no W, alas, and no S, and no J, but still many awesome blocks to be had.

You know those cool illustrations in some books, that look like they’re stamped but might also have painted details, and can take up an entire page in a children’s picture book and be incredible elaborate? Those are woodcuts, and you can print them off of any old alphabet block in which the letters or illustrations are carved into the block, not just painted on, and since you’re recycling, you don’t have to worry about the ethics of crafting with wood. Here’s how:

• » See also: Crafty and Green Book Review: 52 Projects by Jeffrey Yamaguchi
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 You will need:

• something to stamp with. Look for vintage alphabet blocks at garage sales or thrift stores, or while out dumpster-diving. You can sometimes get a deal on these, because you won’t care if they’re all beat up.
• something to stamp on. My girls and I use professional-quality artist’s papers–Strathmore, usually–or recycled or vintage papers, from old schoolbooks, perhaps, or from brown paper bags.
• stamp ink. Wood is slightly porous–the fact that it will suck up a little bit of your ink is part of what makes up the distinct look of a woodcut. Just don’t think that you can do some art with these alphabet blocks and then pass them on to your nephew for Christmas. Unless you varnish your block first, which will change the look of your print, these blocks don’t always clean up perfectly. They’re art supplies, now.
• wet discloth. You can clean up your block between colors although, like I said, wood is a little porous so don’t expect it to come back sparkling.

Basically, you can use these woodcut blocks just like rubber stamps with two exceptions:

1. Wood blocks, unlike stamps, have no give whatsoever. You may not even think that the stamps you usually use have any give until you try stamping with a wood block. I generally turn my block and paper upside down and burnish from the paper side as I stamp, to get the clearest image.
2. Wood blocks, like stamps, reverse the image when they stamp. I actually really like this in some of my work, like certain Artist Trading Cards that my girls and I make. Other solutions, though–if your cut image has an image and a word for instance, like my alphabet blocks that have an image of a tiger and then, you know, also say “tiger,” you can fill in the word with clay or putty. And for letters, think ones that have a vertical symmetry axis–A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X, and Y.

Do you make art with something that wasn’t intended for it?

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