Wood engraving was a nice, enjoyable project — though it’s a bit time-consuming and labor intensive! Learn how to make a pretty and intricate painted wood engraving in this blog post.
Before today, I didn’t know anything about wood engraving … but when I went to Michael’s {an arts and crafts store} this morning, I wandered into the clearance section, as is my habit. I had intended to walk out of Michael’s with just a yellow stamp pad, but that intention was formed before I saw this thing:
I stared at it, wondering what I would use it for. The back of the box assured me I could inscribe “glass, metal, wood, stone, ceramic, leather, plastic, acrylic, and more!”, and while I hadn’t felt a hole in my life due to the inability to inscribe on any of those materials thus far, I can never pass up a good sale. So, $6.00 later, the “Inscriblio” and I walked out of Michael’s ready to start our new life together.
While in Michael’s, I came to the realization that I have nothing to inscribe, so I had the sense to splurge on a $0.75 A7 piece of wood.
When I got home, I tried engraving on a rock with minimal success, and then some metal. Finally, I decided to try my hand at wood engraving.
Working with this tool was sort of like wielding a mini jack hammer. The tip of the unit appears to spin very quickly in order to chip the material away. It’s also a bit tiresome to use because it vibrates your hand so much. However, I liked the results I was getting, and I decided to create a henna design à la my watercolor calligraphy tutorial.
After creating the henna design, I realized it would be much easier to trace over a design in pencil, so I made a template …
… And I used my wood engraving tool to cut it out using my faux calligraphy technique {fat downstrokes, thin upstrokes}.
I think it took about an hour and a half to create the naked wood engraving. Once I was finished, I was unhappy with how plain it looked, so I decided to add some color. Dually, I mixed a pinch of blue acrylic with gloss medium and brushed it on the surface of the wood.
Next, I used a wet washcloth to wash off the paint on the flat surfaces of the piece. This left paint in the grooves of the wood engraving.
I repeated the same process with green for a gradient/ombre effect.
And when that was done, I ended up with this:
I didn’t think the text stood out quite enough, so I filled in the letters with some blue I had left over.
To enhance the message of the wood engraving {La vie est si belle = Life is so beautiful, French}, I had to add some bling. Winsor & Newton gold ink was up to the task:
And because I so loved how vibrant and lovely the gold was, I filled out the flowers in the bottom with gold as well:
Wood engraving was a nice, enjoyable project — though it’s a bit time-consuming and labor intensive! If you’re interested in trying your hand at it, you can purchase the same machine that I got here.
Let me know if you have any questions! I know wood engraving is something that all of you who read this blog would be great at; so if you have the slightest bit of interest, give it a shot!
Until next time,
*This post contains affiliate links to Amazon
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