Introduction to linocut printmaking

A short course - three intense evenings. Linocuts can be printed without a press and don't need a lot of "stuff".

My first "reveal" (on the right, a japanese baren)

In the first session we learned about tools -

Gouges for woodcutting, but can be used for lino also

I speedily found these, and some "plastic lino"

... and about cutting - the V gouge for lines and contours, the round one for removal -

Note the position of the hand (behind the cutting) and the angle of the tool

Warm the lino - and use a grippy mat to stop it slipping (though I found that sometimes it's useful to be able to turn the lino as you cut, for a circle for instance). "You have more control if you stop now and again" said Anne Marie. You don't have to press hard! The width of the line depends on the pressure.

Before inking, use a bristle brush to get rid of any "bits". 

We used Safewash inks - oil based, so they don't dry out immediately, but can be washed with water, and you can use vegetable oil to get rid of any oil residue.

Some test prints, trying to get the amount of ink right, and
 using the baren to rub

 Before the next class I drew out a couple more scenes (from my "Home" series of drawings) onto lino, but didn't get round to attempting to cut them. Too detailed! Will have to rethink,,,

The recently-purchased "plastic lino", and the pattern of a ceramic plate seen in a book, led to a quick block and some experiments with multiple prints and ghost prints -

The jig for registration consists of a piece of cardboard the same size as the printing paper. Place the block in position and draw round it; once the inked block is in place, the paper is aligned with the card,

Multipositional tryouts

Exciting inking with two colours happening next to me

Some people were using caustic soda to texture sections of the surface, but I decided to leave that for another day. Did try using the relief press, though, and it gave a smoothly dark print. Can similar results be obtained with my bookbinding press?

The third session was about using colour. First Anne Marie showed a block she'd textured with stop-out varnish (the dark bits) and caustic soda, printed in blue -

 I'd made another little plate to try out some textures -

My two-colour trial was a revelation - I'll be looking for ways to use that technique in my project.

Then it was on with my psychedelic not-quite-circle. Anne Marie suggested using extender ink to make paler and darker versions of the colour - and in retrospect I wish I'd done that - but somehow I got sidetracked into mixing first a pale orange and then adding yellow - not that successful as a top layer, so I tried a darker orange instead.

The registration jig in action

What a difference a colour makes

Psychedelic filigree?

Some plain blocks printed up for later 

Hanging up to dry on the ingenious marble rack

Colour blending -

And the effect it can have -

Elsewhere around the table -

The printmaking room at City Lit -

(This post is linked to Off the Wall Friday.)

Poetry Thursday - Rachel McCarthy

Survey North of 60 degrees

We're here to cast off names -
Viking, Fair Isle, Faeroes,
pronounce drowned coves, remap the coast.
I'm troubled - not at the cliff's seaward shiver
or the guillemots' black beaks scissored and shrieking -
but the wind singing
one long low note
its worm-burrow to the heart of the Arctic.

Late, in your hotel room, we nip at a bottle of Absolut,
talk of tongues of ice repealing themselves:
Novaya Zemlya, Svalbard, Barents.
I don't mention the wind tunnelling me
like the wisteria that arched the path
from the park to my childhood home
where I'd sneak a smoke
to inhale the boy I thought I loved
before I knew what love was;

snow-quiet, might, obliterative,
to be able to sit at the world' end
and say little of it.

Rachel McCarthy

Encountered at  Alphabet of Our Universe, part social history lecture, part poetry reading, at the Royal Society of Chemistry during the "Courtyard Late" at Burlington House on 15 July - the postcard is a good reminder. The "Y" stamp refers to one of the elements whose history was brought to light in the lecture; fascinating.

Rachel's poetry is inspired by "hardcore" chemistry; she is also a climate scientist. Her first pamphlet, Element, is available now.

Meanwhile, back at the flat...

Living room ready for plastering

... and doesn't it need it!

The kitchen is spared "attention" at this point

Everything had to be moved to any available space
(so many tools in the bathroom!)

And once the plasterer had gone -

I can finally get to my closet!

and the tools have been taken to a job site

Freshly plastered

 Areas of disorder do remain -

And while the Project Manager was on holiday, the electricity went off and the freezer puddled onto the (plaster covered) floor.......

People keep telling me "it'll be worth it in the end" - I hope one day soon I'll at least feel there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Drawing Tuesday - Wallace Collection

Most of us were in the armour rooms (fascinating stuff, armour).

This was my view -

And this is the shadowy blind that you see in the reflections; an appealing contrast of soft and hard -

Janet suggested I draw everything I can see, rather than a single object, so I filled the left page and then went on to the right, adding some shading and a bit of colour here and there -

Joyce filled a page with "single items", mostly made in G

 Sue set to work capturing the shadows on a blind, but the angle of sun kept changing and then disappeared altogether (a prelude to being caught in the rain on the way to lunch) -

She loaded a waterbrush with colour from  the grey Neocolour crayon, then painted the colour onto the page. Her other drawings use mainly biro, with some of the grey Neocolour in the corset -

 Carol found "two strong women" (to echo a theme in recent news) elsewhere in the building, and enjoyed the smoothness -

 Janet's two drawings (horses of course) show the result of spending more time with each image -

 Tool of the week - both Sue and I had our sets of Lumocolour pencils with us. Sue's 2B has been getting lots of use -

whereas my HB had gone missing; it's replacement is a dark, waxy Lumocolour EE, which has the advantage of not smearing.

Been there

Tivoli, by Gillian Ayres

Somehow this image found its way into my Quilts photo folder - and what a contrast the bright colours of the print, or is it a painting, make with the dullness of my fabric productions. All that orange!

Checking to see if the pic had been used on the blog, I found it had been a colour inspiration when I was making a stripey painting exactly two years ago. A painting that evolved from day to day, anevolution that I photographed, thinking to "do something" with those images. An idea is hatching, but often these embryo ideas need more time to develop.

Bradel binding

A one-day course at Morley College. I wanted to follow directions and actually "make something", rather than always have to make decisions! This course was offered last year, and I did it then, but seem to have completely forgotten everything I knew about bookbinding. This was a great refresher, calmly taught by Young Sin Kim; other bookbinding courses are available at Morley, and her course on drop back box on 23 July still has places available.

The photos are here less to set out the process of making a Bradel-bound book, but as a (findable) record of key moments for me. I took notes, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

notched guide for punching sewing holes

protect the section with paper under the weight while sewing

flat brush for glueing; two thin coats

making headbands to match endpapers

cutting endpapers to size

keep spine free when pressing the book block after endpapers added

cloth and two layers of brown paper on spine

use bookcloth for the spine, but fabric or paper is ok for the covers

glue spine to both covers, then turn up head and tail before foredge

Bradel bound - in six hours

Wikipedia says: "A Bradel binding (also called a bonnet or bristol board binding, a German Case binding, or in French as Cartonnage à la Bradel or en gist) is a style of book binding with a hollow back. It most resembles a case binding in that it has a hollow back and visible joint, but unlike a case binding, it is built up on the book. Characteristic of the binding is the material covering the outside boards is separate from the material covering the spine." It can be traced back to 18th century Germany.

Comprehensive instructions can be found here and elsewhere on the internet.