Stained Woodblock

Here's the woodblock after I made a number of prints.  Not all that pretty, but beautiful to its mother.

First Woodblock Print

Here's the first print I made from the first-ever woodblock carving I made.  You can look back a couple postings to see the woodblock itself.

Woodworking - Close to Done

This summer we've been taking wood carving classes, and my son and I found we both really enjoy it.  I finally finished the first-ever woodblock I attempted!  Hooray!  Here it is.  This particular photo shows it when it's not quite done, but you can get the gist of the thing.  Personally, I like it, except that it's shown upside-down here.  I am the world's worst at manipulating pictures on computers.  Much rather spend my time painting or carving wood than learning how to do THAT!

You can see a much earlier version of this piece before I did a lot of major carving under the heading 'Woodworking, First Big Project.'

Tomorrow when I get some good light in the house, I'll take a pic of my first ever print that I made with this.

New York's Guggenheim

These are some shots we took of the Guggenheim in New York when we were there.  The building itself, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is a masterpiece.

 Outside the museum, just before we went in.

 Looking up at the dome was inspiring.  And we had many chances at it as the entire museum centers around it.

Frank Lloyd Wright built the museum to be used in a certain way.  He wanted museum-goers to take the elevator up to the top and walk down the spiral, taking in the galleries while walking down.  We did it backwards and walked up.  I don't know if my memory serves me well in this point, but I think I remember docents encouraging everyone to walk UP in a certain direction. 
Guess we'll have to go back to see!

 These are shots of the Wright Restaurant inside the Guggenheim.  This restaurant and its architect have won many awards for its design.  The food was awesome, and expensive.  Definitely not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy!

 These are powder-coated aluminum slats which the artist, Liam Gillick, named The horizon produced by a factory once it had stopped producing views.  They are mounted on two complete walls inside the restaurant.

Had to toss in a couple pictures of Central Park as well.  The Guggenheim is across the street from Central Park, so it just begs for a stroll after you exit the museum.

There's my boy walking down the path!

Woodworking - First Big Project

This summer Noah and I are taking, of all things, woodcarving!  And to my surprise, we're really enjoying it!  Each week, Noah asks me when woodcarving is; he looks forward to it that much.  The Homeschool House on Robinson Road holds classes and that's where we go.  This is my second project - we all did a simple keychain project at first to learn all the different types of cuts.  And of course, I would have to come up with a really complex design for my second project.  Here it is in all of its, uh... glory.  We'll see how it turns out.  I'm hoping that I do a good enough job with enough relief to turn this into a useful woodblock for printing...  as one of my friends said, I'm going to work to make Albrecht Durer proud!