The last time I posted, the new tools were working out pretty well, so well that I decided my first real woodcut (Poley doesn't count) should also be my first attempt at a suicide print.
Suicide prints are multi-color prints that are printed off a single block that gets carved away a little more to print each successive color. Since you destroy the previous color's printable area with each step, you can't go back and print more--it's a forced limited edition. (They are also called reduction prints because you're reducing the block with each color, but that doesn't sound nearly as badass.)
Two colors were plenty for my inexperienced ass; no point in getting too fancy (the prints at the link are really cool and illustrate the process clearly--go look!).
I cut away the wood to reveal a flower-shaped blob, inked it, and made my prints. (The dark lines here are not relief cuts--they were drawn on with a Sharpie so I could see where to cut for the next color.)
I used a particularly nice okra bloom from last summer as my model. Hello, beautiful!
Here are some of the red blobs I printed with the block.
While the red ink dried, I cut away everything else on the block that was not outlined in Sharpie. This is what was left.
Then I rolled black ink over the block and applied it to the red prints at right, taking care to align the edges of the paper with the edges of the block. I have a terrible time with registration, but this seemed to work pretty well.
Here are all the prints drying. That's all there are, and all there will ever be. Although I still have the black outline, so I will probably do something else with it eventually.
Here's a closeup of one of the prints. I wish I had made the lines thinner so it would look more graceful, and I wish I had taken the time to clean up the block more on the red. As it is, it looks a little clumsy and forbidding. Still, for a first attempt, I'm happy.
And that is how you make a suicide aka reduction print. You were wondering, weren't you?