Beauty and the brayer

Techman invited Starboy to do a project on Sunday. Starboy said, "I want to paint. I want to use a roller to roll the paint all around." He demonstrated with his hands.

He'd been with us at the art supply store to get some brayers for a printmaking experiment I'd like to try, but all he knew was that we'd bought rollers. I hadn't told him what they were for, and he hadn't seen them since we'd come back from the store a week ago.

So I gave him one of the new brayers and two squirts of paint—different hues, but all we have left is green—and he was delighted.

"Look, Mommy, It spreads the paint around! Look, it picks up the paint that's already there! And I can move it over here!"

The resulting art is beautiful and also could make good wrapping paper! I feel grateful for knowing about Jean Van't Hul of The Artful Parent and the moms from Play at Home Mom—they provide the kind of daily inspiration that spurred me to get the brayers, for their suggested projects!

 We tried some linoleum blocks for printing, but that didn't go as smoothly. Or I should say: It didn't go according to my pre-conceived ideas. That's more accurate. Techman was overseeing that bit, and I forgot to ask him for the full report.

This was my favorite one.

The brayers were about $12 each. I wasn't sure which ones to buy, so I got an acrylic one and a hard rubber one. I like to have two of things so that two children can work at the same time. I realized during this project that you'd likely be better off with two per child—one to roll ink on your positive, and a second, dry one to roll across the back of your paper while making the print. We'll see how it plays out over time.