Printing a pillow

A few months ago I took a workshop on block printing (hosted by Danielle of The Recoverie) and got hooked. I like how quickly the process can be done, compared to what can feel like laborious hours spent on a painting. The texture of the rubber blocks prevents me from getting too obsessive about the details.

So I’ve gone all in! It’s a block-printing year. Especially with the holidays approaching in a few months. And I’ve just finished my first project: a pillow-case print of my brother’s partner sleeping on the couch with her dog.

It started with some simple sketches from photos:

I doodled this sleepy dog drawing from a photo my brother sent. While I liked it as a sketch, I wasn’t sure how it would translate with paint. I had also come up with the idea to do two complementary prints, and needed to make some adjustments to improve the impression of symmetry.

Which led to…

So many iterations! I finished the final design for “I am pillow” first, but both concepts evolved together.

After finalizing the designs, I did a graphite transfer of the sketches onto the rubber block and began carving the negative space. That’s definitely one of the most fun parts of the process! Relaxing on a couch, carving rubber lines feels meditative.

After carving first drafts of both blocks, I practiced printing them on standard paper. Practicing on paper served a few purposes. It allowed me to test out different color combinations as well as showed spots on the block that needed to be carved down farther.

After multiple rounds of printing on paper, I was ready to progress to fabric! Unfortunately, that also took several rounds (and several Amazon purchases) to get right.

I’d originally wanted to print lighter colors on a navy pillowcase, but it didn’t turn out as bright as I had envisioned. The attempt above was actually double-printed to make it stand out more, and it’s still not clear enough. I’m sure there’s a way to do this better with more experience, but I’m not there yet.

I also experimented with multiple prints, which I strongly considered doing on the final version. But I ultimately decided to go with singular prints on each side, to better highlight the detail in each picture.

And, finally, the finished project:

I AM PILLOW (pillowcase front)

YOU ARE PILLOW (pillowcase back)