Using an Old Block in a New Way

When I first started the We Are Pilgrims series I intended to re-use some of the main keyblocks, thinking of them as characters in a narrative that would repeat. In a few cases I did use blocks in multiple ways. I used the ships a few times, repeated the little cluster of Pilgrims in two different prints, but overall I didn't repeat the blocks as much as I thought I would.

For this print of John Eliot's Indian Bible, though, I'm re-using a couple of blocks. Since I'm representing the first page of the Bible, Genesis Chapter 1, it seems fitting to use the Tree of Knowledge and serpent that I carved previously for the American Bible Story print (photo above). I needed to isolate just that portion of the keyblock, though, and I needed to situate the block in the appropriate spot on the new print, so it required some figuring.

I've been using a registration board for this print, so I placed the Bible Story keyblock into the board and with a lot of trial and error used a piece of acetate plus a copy of the Eliot Bible print to determine where the image would fall and where the new kento should be. I cut a mask and marked a new kento with some tape on a piece of acetate:



Then I placed the acetate over the block in the registration board and printed the Tree of Knowledge onto the Eliot Bible print.



Here's the result: