And there it was- the answer I'd been seeking for a year! I was so excited I wanted to get started in the car on the way home. I could already picture it: a three-foot-long dragon clawing its way up the paper, great bold henna designs sweeping across the . . . Hold on now, those big prints are a lot of work! It would take what, 40-60 hours to carve that dragon on the printing block? Then there's the whole long and unbelievably messy inking and printing process. And it would be a bit of an investment-- linoleum blocks to carve, new cutting tools, printing inks, special paper. . .

Hmmm. . . Between the labor and the expense involved, that would make for a pretty pricey finished product. Eighty bucks? A hundred bucks? And we're not even talking about framing materials yet. Who can afford that right now? Not too many people, I think. So I crept back to my corner to sulk some more.

"Pssst. . . " said a voice in my ear. "Does it really have to be so big? So complicated? So breathtakingly expensive?"

"Umm. . . " I answered, sensibly.

"What if it was smaller? What if it was simple? What. . . " the voice leaned closer in a conspiratorial whisper, "if it was. . . fun?"

I stared. I blinked. "Fun. . . ? It could be fun??"

The voice nodded in reply. (Which, I might tell you, is no mean feat.)

"Fun, you say," I say. "How could this 'fun' be achieved?"

The voice smiled. "You will find the way. . . " it whispered, as it slowly faded away.

"What? Find the. . . Oh thanks a lot. Just like a friggin muse to wander in, get my hopes up, then make a hasty exit. That's it, I'm heading right back to my corner."

To be continued . . .