In an effort to get my nose off the grindstone, I have been taking a printmaking workshop at the Eric Carle Museum of the Picture Book in nearby Amherst, MA. We have had a fabulous teacher, Lynn Peterfreund, and deluxe materials to work with, but my creations have not been satisfying.

The weekend before setting up our student show at the museum, I decided to carve a very simple pattern into a linoleum block, then use it to print on a white suede pair of First Footsteps shoes for toddlers from the kits that I sell.

The green and turquoise Color Block permanent ink stamp pads that I have served me well. I added a few unifying dots of color using a pencil eraser as a stamp, with one red/orange dot to tie-in with the elastic I had available.

My stamp was 4″ x 4″, so I recalled that for a stamp this size, it’s better to press the stamp pad onto the rubber block, than the block onto the stamp pad. So I pressed the pad onto the block until it looked well-inked – then it was time to press the block onto the leather.

I was so pleased when I peeled the block off of the leather, the print looked great! Lynn thought so too, and wanted to print a pair herself because she will have a new grandchild this summer. I was thrilled to offer her a kit, and can’t wait to see a photo of the results – I’ll definitely post it.

Now I’m thinking printed shoe parts might be a good product to add to the First Footsteps line. Or, maybe by reading this post, you might be thinking that printing – potato or otherwise –  on shoes would be something you would enjoy doing yourself.

Or, might there be a person reading the post who would love to print on the shoe parts, assemble them, and sell them. I’ll do what I can to get you started!