Mary Azarian
May 10, 2000


Woodcut artist and Caldecott medalist, Mary Azarian visited with Orchard School's second and third graders.


She showed slides of her Plainfield, VT studio.

Mrs. Azarian uses wood from Japan for her carvings.

She prints on very thin Japanese paper made from vegetable fibers.

Here, she squeezes acrylic paint onto plexiglass.

Mrs. Azarian rolls a brayer on the plexiglass.

This is a closer view of the brayer.

Next, she rolls the paint onto the woodcut.

She places a piece of paper on the inked woodcut and then rubs the paint onto the paper.

Here is the print.

The students asked lots of wonderful questions.

This is the "dummy" of one of her books. A dummy is a rough copy of a book from the printer.

Mrs. Azarian sometimes adds watercolor to her prints.
We all learned so much from Mary Azarian about creating a woodblock print, as well as how books are produced.
Thanks goes out to the Orchard School PTO for sponsoring this wonderful event.

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This page last updated: 08/28/04.