Woodcut

Woodcut - formally known as xylography - is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges. The areas to show 'white' are cut away with a knife or chisel, leaving the characters or image to show in 'black' at the original surface level. The block is cut along the grain of the wood (unlike wood engraving where the block is cut in the end-grain). In Europe beechwood was most commonly used; in Japan, a special type of cherry wood was used.

The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller (brayer), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas.

Multiple colors can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks (where a different block is used for each color). The art of carving the woodcut can be called "xylography", but this is rarely used in English for images alone, although that and "xylographic" are used in connection with blockbooks, which are small books containing text and images in the same block. Single-leaf woodcut is a term for a woodcut presented as a single image or print, as opposed to a book illustration.

"Bright and Shiny" fact

( for more information/definiton about "Bright and Shiny things", click here )

Many party venues use a rubber stamp to mark the wrist or forearm of paid ticket holders. A "good trick" used by some people to gain entance is to get one person into the party by purchasing a ticket, and get their stamp. A short time later, the ticket holder exits the party, ostensibly to "go out side for a smoke".

They take a fresh potato and cut it in half and roll it against the stamp to transfer the pattern to the potato. The pattern can be rolled on the wrist of others to create the appearance that they too had purchased a ticket. If there are many people who want to gain entrance, you can use a pocket knife to cut away potato without ink and then use a stamp pad to reink the potato.

The beauty of this technique is that doormen can't possibly remember the faces of every one entering or leaving the venue. Also, the mark designed to be temporary, often smear or run during the course of the evening.

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