A Frugal (sort of) Experiment

 

 

 

Landscape Layers

6" x 9"

Relief print

I ordered linoleum plates from a company in the UK that were sized to a UK standard, however they came at such a good price, I thought it would be easy enough to cut them down to 8” x 10”. Relief printing plates are not cheap, so I saved the strips of material I cut off, thinking I’d do something with them eventually.

Well, one day I got the idea to carve the various leftover 8” x 1.5” pieces into “layers” of landscape. I cut a river, pine trees, 2 cloud versions, mountains, and hills. Then, I experimented with arranging the strips in different ways. 

Good idea, but poor outcome. I liked sections of the prints, but overall, they were a disappointment. An artist friend commiserating with me over the failure brilliantly suggested I cut them up and make cards out of them. They turned out GREAT and I sold them all!

Next, I experimented with the same plates on black paper—this time, with some success! I played around with more opaque colors and discovered I could use the pine tree plate right side up AND upside down! The colors on the black paper really popped nicely and created a unique result. 

I sold two of the prints in the series, and one of the buyers requested a companion piece that would be different, but compatible with the print they purchased.

Easier said than done.

About 20 prints later, I came up with a couple of options, one of which was chosen by my client (yay!). But what to do with all the leftovers? Some worked, some did not. Again, I did a little creative cropping and trimming and ended up with some nice pieces and a few cards!