Last year I had the chance to attend the wedding of two of my favorite people, my college roommate AMP and his brilliant wife TKB. For their first anniversary, the paper anniversary, AMP approached me to work on a piece to fit in with the theme. He sent me some of his favorite images from the wedding, notably this stunner on the balcony of their first dance. We chatted on the possibilities- I was interested in figuring out how to capture the spirit of the photo in a print.

Well, as it happens and I didn’t take a photo of it, but the first sketch that I made ignored the first rule of printmaking: to create a mirrored version of the image. With a laugh and a deep breath at the false start, I went back and did it over again.

The printmaking process for this tested my ability to control the tools on a relatively small block (also making me think that getting some finer tools may not be such a bad idea). You’ll note that a lot of the detail on the block did not appear in the print itself as the ink set into the smaller gaps and diffused them. Something to look into, I’m not sure if the ink needs to be thinner or what has to happen. You’ll also note that the date didn’t appear. Why? I etched 2015, the date of the anniversary not the date of the wedding. Oy. I was able to smudge it over with a finger.

In the end, I took away some great lessons. In particular, the backdrop with the clouds and the building came out crisp. I was happy with the composition (although that mainly reflects the excellent photography in the source material) and after many, many attempts, had a number of prints where the black ink fields came out nice and smooth. I delivered the prints to AMP with extras for his parents and in-laws, as well as the block. Very happy to have been a part of the original event and to celebrate the first year of many in their marriage!

Interested in having a moment in your life captured in print form? Let me know at writetolayne@gmail.com!