Experimental print experiments

So far my inspiration for this part of the course has been based around calligraphy and lettering. I've developed these ideas and now have two blocks inspired by NJA MAHDAOUI  and Arabic calligraphy and one inspired by music notation, Paul Klee and the process of creating my experimental block. Here are prints of my two blocks:

This is based on my name in Arabic cut in lino

And this is based in my initials in a Roman alphabet cut in japanese ply with files and nails.

I tried layering these

This print is on a paper bag. The paper was not absorbent so this took a very long time to dry and was a bit patchy.

I love the shapes created by repeating and layering this block, further abstracting the calligraphy.

These blocks are quite small, (15x20cm) so I would like to make a bigger piece by more repeating and layering. I also started to include collage of tissue papers printed with the same blocks which were semi transparent when laid over the other papers. All of these papers were packaging papers I found, many were not absorbent enough for effective printing.

These are my first two attempts, the second one was much better for tearing the paper and printing over it again. I developed this more:

Overall I created some nice textures here and am more pleased with the composition of this piece as the balance of value works better.

This composition is a bit jumbled.

I don't know whether to continue with this idea or try to rearrange my blocks with less collage and more composition through printing. I have some lovely silk tissue papers to try.

I originally wanted to add a third block to this, or even more, in foam, possibly portraits of my children but this is much harder than I anticipated. Maybe that stage of development will come for the final submission.