Image

Garden of Delights: X

Tuesday, April 28th, 2020 By Deborah

Writing my way through the A-to-Z blogging challenge, I’ve tasked myself with leading you on a meandering tour of the virtual garden of delights and curiosities and thoughts that make up my world – all through the lens of unusual, obscure, or simply charming-to-me words.

X is for…

xylography: the art of making engravings on wood especially for for printing

Block printing is an centuries old art form popular in India, China, Japan, and many other East Asian countries. I’m fascinated by it, and I’ve seen demonstrations of both Japanese woodblock printing on paper, and Indian printing on fabric. I’ve found a couple of short videos online that give a great sense of the process, and I encourage you to check them out.

I have a number of articles of clothing and fabric that have been block printed and they’re all treasures to me. Here’s a peek at a few.

The idea of carving wood amazes me. I’ve done the most simplistic carvings on lino, soft-kut (a rubber-like material) and even erasers, and it’s great fun. But I doubt I could manage anything complicated, let alone on wood.

Musing about wooden blocks got me wondering where the expression blockhead came from.  An insult, meaning a stupid or idiotic person, it’s suggested the term may have come from the head-shaped wooden blocks used by hat makers.

But I also thought about another blockhead.  I love my plant-brained  block.

I may not actually have a block head, but there’s no doubt part of me is indeed wood.  According to the 9 Star Ki, a system based on interpreting the energetic qualities one carries based on one’s birthday, my primary number, meaning my primary characteristics, is yang wood.  Yang wood is associated with sunrise, east, early Spring, liver/gallbladder, light green; proceeding, advancement, beginnings, accomplishing, optimism, creativity; and yang wood personalities are emotional, strong, idealistic, poetic, brilliant, active, aesthetic, kind-hearted, straightforward, romantic, successful.  Extremes include: temperamental, opinionated, stubborn, competitive. Of course, I claim none of those latter characteristics.

My house is filled with sticks and branches and I also have a number of carved wooden figures – some African, some Balinese, and one of my favorites was carved by sister-in-law.  I shared a stash of Cypress knees with her and in return she carved a two-sided goddess for me.  Aren’t I lucky?  Don’t you love the idea of Cypress knees?  I get shivers of delight just saying the word.

So what about you?  Love block printing? Done any carving? Feel blocked about anything? Even if you don’t know anything about the 9 Star Ki system,  would you consider yourself more like wood, water, earth, fire, or metal?  Do tell – you know I love to hear.

Categories : Connect, Create
Tags : , , , , ,

Comments

    • I like to think a rich and full life leaves us marked with endless imprints.
      Yin Earth is a lovely expression, and you wear it well. 🙂

    • I thought about you as I was writing this post Anne – your work is fabulous.I absolutely think you get to call yourself a blockhead! 🙂 I hadn’t realized you worked with wood sometimes. Aside from the carving differences, I imagine there are differences with the printing as well.

    • I had to look for examples Kathleen – how lovely! Years ago I did some batik resist dyeing and I’ve been thinking about doing it again. However, just yesterday I had a conversation with someone working with natural dyes and suddenly I’m totally chomping at the bit to do some major project involving dyeing papers. So many ideas – if only I could figure out how to add more hours to every day.

    • It amuses me to think sometimes that perhaps I ought to chair a Cypress Knees Appreciation Society.

    • I just discovered that. Kathleen’s comment about the indigo resist printing sent me looking, and I discovered the museum in Papa, Hungary that was once a factory producing the fabric. Beautiful work.

  7. This 9 star Ki system sounds pretty accurate to me. All those qualities (the ones you do claim:) often peek through your posts.

    I’m always drawn to water–will wait and see what the system predicts.

    If block printed fabric is your thing, then google Ajrakh. The art, its history and the end results will keep you happily occupied for hours. I’ve had the good fortune of visiting Ajrakhpur, in Gujarat, India where the entire village (no exceptions) is involved in the art of Ajrakh, from designing the blocks to the finished product.
    Sharing this link for you to browse:
    https://www.india1001.com/blogs/1001_crafts/10703197-ajrak-printing-the-story-of-ajrakpur

    And learnt about cypress knees–love the term and your sister-in-law’s carving.

    • What a fabulous article, and how wonderful you’ve been to visit Arti. You’ve opened the door to a rabbit hole I’m happily jumping down into. 🙂

  9. I love block printing! Although I would like to be more like water, flowing and calm, I probably most resemble fire. So, you claim none of those extreme characteristics? 😉 I will own that I’m feeling opinionated these days. I wonder what my birthday would show.

    • I’ve been thinking there should be an additional element added to accommodate these particular times – cactus. That would account for how easily we can fall prey to being prickly. Not that I’d know anything about that either. 🙂

    • LOL. And now you see the downside of falling down rabbit holes Beth. I’m lucky not to forget my own name. I hold no hope for the original query that. Although actually, it’s thought to originally have referred to milliner’s blocks on which they shaped the felt for hats. Wooden heads without brains.

Temenos of the Blessing Light Copyright © 2023 Deborah Weber. All Rights Reserved. Design by WebsitesInWP.com
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service