Learning about JAPAN- printmaking tutorial

Today we talked a little bit about woodblock printing and tried to make some prints at home. The idea for this craft came from the book Hands-on Asia.
1. We took a thick foam sheet and cut it in four. On each part we drew a design (something very simple).

2. Trace the design with a chopstick pressing hard, but not puncturing the sheet. It can be challenging for little hands I must say, but after a while D. got a hang of it.

 

3. Pick colors and spread generous amount of paint over design. (We used Clementine paints which are not too bright when they dry up, they also have earthy tones perfect for our nature inspired designs).

4. Put a sheet of paper over the design and rub all over.

5. Peel the paper off and voila.

In the end of the day we read  Look What Came from Japan by Miles Harvey.

It was an ok book, some information is outdated (VHS and walkman, tamagochi as well), but it reminded us about japanese things we read about before- sushi, pottery, arts etc.