A dear friend of ours recently lost his Mom to Covid and he had the difficult task of starting to clean her house. When he texted me to ask if I would like his Mom's dishes my first reaction was to say no because I have A LOT of dishes. But then he texted a photo of the plates. They were the most perfect shade of light blue with a lovely flower pattern in the middle; plus they had a beautiful scalloped edge. I tried to resist, but I really did love the plates. So without much arm-twisting I accepted. "There are connoisseurs of blue just as there are connoisseurs of wine."
— Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette
When he dropped them off I saw they were made by Harmony House and the pattern was called "Blue Rhythm." I did a little research and they are not easy to find. Replacements.com said the pattern was discontinued around 1959.
I wanted to send my friend a condolence card and thank him for the plates. Then it dawned on me that I could make a print of the plate pattern. I liked that he would still have an image to remind him of the plates and his Mom.
CARVING
I started by photographing the plate, shrinking the pattern in Photoshop, printing it out, tracing the pattern, and then transferring to my plate. I was also very excited to try out my new Japanese screw punch to make the tiny circles.
PRINTING
For this project it was important to match the color as closely as I could. As you can see, my first attempt in the lower left hand corner was too green.
Below you can see a video of me burnishing and pulling a print.
I still have square translucent envelopes left over from my wedding almost twenty years ago. They have come in handy many times since then and I knew I wanted to use them for this. I love the look of the print coming through the envelope.
CARVING
I started by photographing the plate, shrinking the pattern in Photoshop, printing it out, tracing the pattern, and then transferring to my plate. I was also very excited to try out my new Japanese screw punch to make the tiny circles.
For this project it was important to match the color as closely as I could. As you can see, my first attempt in the lower left hand corner was too green.
Below you can see a video of me burnishing and pulling a print.
I still have square translucent envelopes left over from my wedding almost twenty years ago. They have come in handy many times since then and I knew I wanted to use them for this. I love the look of the print coming through the envelope.
I felt deeply honored that my friend gave me these dishes and I look forward to having him for dinner served on "Blue Rhythm" plates when this pandemic is over.
"O moon
Mingle our quiet tears
With the tail of comets. . .
For so the soul begins."
—Jean-Marc quoted in Hidden Journey by Andrew Harvey
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