Tree of Life

The image, or the inverse and flipped image is engraved into a wood plate. Wood plate used to be Baltic Birch Plywood, but more recently I have been repurposing discarded furniture that is solid wood. Maple is the most common wood used and is the best for fine detail, but I also use pine, yew, mahogany, walnut and oak. After the plate is engraved, an oil-based relief ink is rolled onto the surface of the wood (not into the engraved grooves), a sheet of printmaking paper is put on top and then it is rolled through a printmaking press that applies enough pressure to transfer the ink from the plate to the paper. This resulting print is called a 'woodcut' or 'wood block print'. Sometimes the black and white woodcut is what I am looking for. Other times I try adding color. This is done by applying the color to a blank piece of printmaking paper. After this background has dried, I think re-ink the wood plate and print that on top of the background painting. Another way that color might be a part of the woodcut is to cut separate plates for different colors and ink up each plate separately, line them up carefully and print the various pieces to make the whole or final print. Multiple prints can be made from a wood plate and the printmaker must decide how many might get printed and then number each print accordingly. Such as 1/100, then 2/100. After 100 prints are pulled, the plate is destroyed, or marred so that it cannot be used for additional prints.