What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’? Spotlight on Hannah Gebhart of DinoCat Studio

It's a treat to discover an artist who balances two crafts, playful design, and the rhythm of the seasons. This week, I'm thrilled to introduce artist Hannah Gebhart, the creative force behind DinoCat Studio. Her printmaking and quilling work offer a joyful, intentional view of the world - one quirky animal or vibrant paper landscape at a time.

 

What’s Cookin’, Good Lookin’

 

Printmaking Process

Hannah's printmaking and paper art workshop is located in Des Moines, Iowa. While a student at Drake University, she developed an affinity for the relief printing process in which she transforms original sketches into prints by carving them into wood blocks. The raised portion of the block is inked and transferred to paper by rubbing the sheet with a glass baren. 

 

 

Hedgehogs

 

 

 Dimensional Quilling

 

 

Another tactile process that Hannah enjoys is quilling. She takes paper to another level - literally - by building dimensional images with thousands of 1/4" paper strips, shaping them into richly colored landscapes or animal portraits that are a contrast to the black and white world of printmaking. 

 

 

Landscape #48

 

Tools, Paper, and Process

 

 

Because so many readers of this blog are especially interested in quilling, I asked Hannah to tell us about the tools she uses and her process. 

 

 

Here you can see that she first sketches the design as a guide.

 

 

Landscape #43

 

For quilling tools, I pretty much just use scissors, a needle tool (one of those long, skinny, pointy ones), and glue. I shape the paper with my fingers most of the time, especially any tree or bush elements. The needle tool is used to help me make coil shapes. I prefer that over a slotted tool, personally. 

 

Ornamental Piece #36

 

I use a plastic lid from cottage cheese or something like that to put my glue on - easy clean up once it's dried! I also switch between Elmer's Glue All and School Glue, depending on what I'm working on.

 

Have a look at Hannah's gluing process on Instagram.  

Meet Me in the Woods

 

For paper, I prefer to use Canson Mi-Teintes that I cut myself. I do have to pull from other brands sometimes, but I only use paper of that same quality. As you know, quilling is too much work to use paper that'll just end up fading in a couple of years.  

 

 

Landscape #36

A Seasonal Art Practice 

I'm a full-time block printmaker. I spend May through September traveling to art festivals, and then the off-months creating new print work. I like to say I "winter in quilling" because I typically work on quilling projects when my printmaking schedule has slowed down a bit and I need a reprieve from that process, which is usually November-January. 

 

Treats

 

It's a nice break from my printmaking work, which is usually only black and white and a messy process. It's an opportunity to play around with color and texture, to build something up from such simple materials. Another reason I love quilling is because it is such an accessible art form that anyone can try their hand at. 

 

 

I Dream of...

 

Hannah's busy season of traveling to shows in the Midwest is underway... follow her on Instagram, @dinocatstudio, or Facebook, @dinocatstudio, to see if she will be in your locale in the coming months, and to keep an eye on her latest imaginative designs. 

  

 

 

You'll find Hannah's festival schedule, as well as an online shop on her Dinocat Studio website. 

 

 

Images courtesy of Hannah Gebhart and used with permission. All rights reserved.