Inky Fingers and Greeting Cards

Posted on | January 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment |Globe

by Julian Stanton, Class of 2011 - 26 Jan 2009

As Dr. Sagarin opened a big cardboard box, pulled out stacks of beautifully printed greeting cards, and placed them onto the table, I remembered the complex process we students went through to make them.

It all started when Ms. Lombardi walked into the classroom and told us that we were going to make block prints. Piles of pictures – some post cards, some newspaper clippings, and some magazines cut outs were laid out on the tables. She told us to take one of the pictures and to draw it on large pieces of paper. When we finished drawing we traced in onto the back of the large sheet of paper, using a light box.

Carefully, we copied our drawing onto a large piece of wood by laying the paper over the wood and pressing along the edges of the drawing. This made an indented picture on the wood, which we darkened with a lead pencil. Then we began carving out the light parts of the drawing. When that was finished we used a special roller to roll thick ink onto the wood carving. The ink only went onto these places we did not carve. When we put paper on the wet ink, the picture was transferred onto the paper.

We sent the paper to be copied, shrunk, and copied onto a card-sized paper.
Cost is $10 for a box of ten cards plus envelopes. Contact the high school for more information: 413 528-8833.