Cloud Classification

My Cloud Classification print was on the front page of Etsy on Saturday, and immediately sold. There are several left though, if you'd like one.

Also, I'm pretty sure that having an item on the front page helped my shop exceed 1100 hearts! I really do love those shop hearts; thanks to everyone who has listed my shop in their favorites.

More Sails

I've made some more of those collaged or chine collé linocut sailing ships. Sold one of the previously posted one today too.

Schrödinger's cat

Is Schrödinger's cat in the box, or not? It depends on when you look at this linocut! This colour-changing thermochromic block print shows the famous thought-experiment of renown quantum physicist Erwin Schrödinger (who would never hurt a real cat!). Both the cat in blue and the poison in pink will disappear when the print is exposed to heat.

In struggling to fully explain the strangeness of the quantum world, which can only be described in terms of probabilities and wave functions, Schrödinger suggested a sort of metaphor, at the size of every day things - the scale of classical physics as we know it. He imagined a cat in a steel box with a vial of poison which might be opened if, and only if, a radioactive decay occurs. In one half-life of the radioactive material, there is a 50:50 chance that the material has decayed or not. So, if the box is closed, and we cannot see within, we can only describe the state of the cat in terms of probabilistic wave functions. After one half-life, we would be forced to describe the contents of the box as the sum of the half likelihood of a live cat and the half likelihood of a dead cat. It is as if, to the outside world, there exists both a live and dead cat.... until, one opens the box and looks. Then we know we either have not yet had the radioactive decay and subsequent release of poison, so the cat is fine, or the radioactive material has decayed and the cat is no more. So, what's so special about looking in the box? Does the wave function "collapse" onto one of these two possibilities? Does the universe split into one in which the cat lives and one in which the cat does not, as in the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics? I tend to side with Niels Bohr whose Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics says, as all experimentalists know, unless you observe something you cannot determine its state. However, physics cannot answer this question! We can determine the probabilities only, we cannot say why. But that's okay. Paradox is delicious.


This is one print in an edition of 10. Each print is made with the box and vial printed in normal, silver block printing ink. The cat and poison are printed using thermochromic powder and block printing medium so when heated above 30°C (86 F) then they turn colourless and disappear. Thus, as in the thought experiment, you don't know whether there is a cat in the box without looking at the print. Each print is 12.3 by 12.5 inches (31.2 cm by 31.8 cm) and made on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper.

This print is one of a series of 'Imaginary Friends of Science', including Maxwell's Demon, Laplace's Demon and Descartes' Demon. It is also one of a collection of thermochromic prints which include a portrait of Louis Pasteur (with disappearing bacteria) and a Groundhog (with disappearing shadow).

As much as I would like to do another portrait of the one and only Minouette, I couldn't let her model for this one, even if it is only a thought experiment.

Tiger!

I had this printed orange patterned paper, so I made a tiger. I like the idea of block printing onto patterned paper. This print is 21 cm wide and 26 cm tall. I carved one block to print the white and one to print the black areas. Though, generally, if you were planning to block print a tiger, most people would plan an orange block and and black block onto white paper. Since the pattern has a wider repeat scale than that, each print varies somewhat, especially the proof below. I wanted the vertical aspect ratio, but I like the horizontal more than I thought I would.

Scrappy Strip Quilts

I really like the photos posted by The Workroom's flickr stream. You can see most of the other quilts made in their classes if you follow this link.

Scrappy Strip Quilt - and butterflies, dinosaurs, fractals and more

I finished my quilt. I was torn on whether I wanted to block print the fabric or not... but I'm glad I did. Here's the reverse:



I made this quilt with stripes of fabric scraps from my stash, including vintage thrifted fabrics and contemporary prints. I block printed the sashing with my own carved monarch butterfly lino block. The reverse is a patchwork with the green sashing fabric, rectangles of the fabrics used on the front and a series of my block prints on fabric including a dinosaur, jellyfish, bees, butterflies, Russian nesting dolls, a fractal triangle, a quail, a rhino, and a blue whale. The quilting is done in a couple of variegated threads, by machine. The quilt is 39 inches by 57 inches (1 m by 146 cm), maybe the size of a child's bed.



Pretty nifty what one can do with scraps, imagination and patience, no?

Sails

I've made some more of those collaged or chine collé linocut sailing ships.