Linocut Printmaking: Happy New Year 2025

It’s the Thought That Counts

People must sometimes tell themselves: It’s the thought that counts. For example, when they receive a present that makes no sense or have to give a present without knowing much about the recipient. Or, perhaps, you offer to make a meal for friends and it all goes sideways. The latter example applies and is the reason I was feeling aweful four days ago when I created the first handful of test prints for this greeting card: Well… it’ll be the thought that counts. Which is why this will probably be the last print I make to celebrate the New Year.

Procrastination Doesn’t Always Lead to Success

Also, people who procrastinate love to tell themselves that they need to procrastinate in order to do a great job at something and be successful. While I tend to be one of those people, my procrastination towards this project has been gained honestly: I’m out of ideas. Face it, the imagery and themes for “Happy New Year” that 1) lend themselves to a 4×6 print and 2) I’m capable of executing are minimal. I knew that this year would be tough when I was looking for inspiration last year, so I’d been dreading this project for a year.

Regardless of whether or not I wanted to do it, after three years of sending-out cards in the new year, it’s begun to feel like an obligation, so I scraped together an idea that I thought would work (and be simple). The process of cutting-out and finishing the printing block was, thankfully, relative easy and simple. The problem came when I made the first test prints.

Learning Curves Don’t Stop

One of the things I enjoy about linocut is that there’s still a lot to learn. That being said, learning the hard way on a project I’ve put off way too long isn’t the time I want to learn something. What I learned from this print was that blocks with a large portion of flat, uncut space tend to slip when you provide too much pressure and/or apply too much ink to the plate. Without knowing this, the first handful of prints gave me the cold sweats because they looked like this was going to be a disaster. Everything was blurry, there were large patches of blank space where the ink didn’t adhere and everything I tried only made it worse.

At that point, my thought was to just abandon the project. Honestly, who besides my mother (who creates her own handmade greeting cards) would even realize I didn’t make one this year? One thing was certain, though: I was not starting over! It was difficult and stressful enough coming up with this idea. There isn’t time for something else and I don’t have the patience to start over. So, I decided to set everything aside and sleep on it.

Embellishment to the Rescue

The next morning, I decided to try the first thing that thought of when trying to think of how to save this project: Why not try embellishing the prints somehow? My art supplies include an extensive collection of fine point, acrylic paint pens that I use for my painted stones, and, after working on the test prints, I felt that I could probably salvage the project if I embellished each print. The added bonus would be that each print would truly be unique.

Prints Come-Out Better Than I Expected

During the printing process, I was mindful of how much ink I was applying to the plate and didn’t over do it with the press. While they still didn’t turn out as well as I’d originally hoped they would, they turned out a lot better than I expected they would a few days ago. The next day, I embellished each print, which took way longer than I thought it would take and the following day I labeled, engraved, packed and stamped the cards for delivery

What’s Next?

The next printing project is a Happy Birthday print for 2025. After that, I’m not sure. Like I said, when thinking of “Happy New Year” I don’t feel great inspiration. To be honest, I don’t feel much inspiration for “Happy Birthday” either. Once I slug this next one out, I’ll have to think about it, hopefully making a decision before January 1, 2026.