Escher's Relativity: Lithography & Optical Illusion

This week we took a look at Escher's Relativity lithograph. We discussed the process of lithography. Lithography uses oil or fat and gum arabic to divide the smooth surface into hydrophobic regions which accept the ink, and hydrophilic regions which reject it and thus become the background.

We decided to give a try at printing with stamping. The backgrounds of leaves were made with pre-made stamps and ink pads. Then we made our own printing
"blocks" out of cardboard and yarn. I gave them two copies of a butterfly outline. We plan to do a two-color printing process, so they can see what this is like. They made one cardboard "block" the outline of a butterfly with yarn.
We will print this in one color and then they each made another "block" with designs inside the outline with yarn for the butterfly's wings. This will be printed in a second color. We will begin printing tomorrow when the "blocks" are dry.