The First Cut

first cut

I made a start on carving my two latest lino blocks. The first cut is made with my smallest cutting tool to carefully carve the outlines. It’s the fiddliest bit of the process, I think and it takes time and concentration.

Sparty rain

It rained today for the first time in ages and Sparta Puss commandeered my dust sheet in my studio while she watched the rain coming down. She wasn’t too happy, she’s been enjoying being out in the garden all day for weeks now.

Here’s a short film of David Bull, a woodblock carver based in Japan. It’s a joy to watch him carving a block – wonderful….

 

 

 

 

 

Lino, Love Hearts And Leftovers Pie

six and seven a

More little grey lino blocks cut and lettered, in reverse, ready for carving and ….

fabric ink 1a

I had a delivery from Handprinted Co, a tube of Speedball fabric block printing ink. These little blocks will be printed onto home made face masks. The first one I did a couple of weeks back was printed in Caligo Safe Wash, which is great on paper but didn’t work so well on fabric. And the lovely people from Handprinted put in a little tube of Love Hearts too.

leftovers pie 2

Then I made Leftovers Pie, what was left of yesterday’s roast chicken dinner in pastry. Easy and it tasted lovely. Enough for tomorrow as well.

 

 

 

Rough Cuts

four and five a

I spent a lot of time bent over a bench hook today, carving away at some more little lino blocks. I’d started some on brown lino yesterday but it wasn’t working out, the lino is very hard and not suited to my design. So I switched to the grey lino, that I’d used for my first three blocks, and it’s working well. I’ve done a rough cut so the next thing is to do proof prints from tham all to see what needs recutting.

four and five b

 

 

 

 

 

Technical Issues

problems

I’ve been cutting away at tiny lino blocks to print words onto fabric and I’ve been using up offcuts as lino is expensive. The grey has been fine but I started on a brown lino block earlier and it’s much harder than the grey and quite slippery too. It’s not really suitable for the rounded text I’ve used so it’s back to the grey lino tomorrow.

Zoom, Lino Cuts And Digital Exclusion

cut 3

Today was a mixed bag with Zoom meetings (how quickly have we taken to Zoom?), an allotment visit, finished cutting a small lino block and marked up two more, made soup and biscuits and then had an hysterical family ‘pub’ quiz on Zoom. It’s been so good to be able to keep in touch through IT, but there are still so many people who don’t have that option and are going through the lockdown alone.

There’s a lot of work going on in this city to get homeless people into housing and to support those who are isolated, but this emergency has highlighted how many rely on libraries or others to connect to the Internet. Some people are living on their own, shopping on their own, going out to exercise on their own, without the Internet, without human contact, week after week. Digital exclusion doesn’t just affect people’s life chances but also their health.

 

tunnocks
Tunnocks Teacakes. No reason, they just look nice.

The Rainbow And The Censored Dog

rainbow

I painted a rainbow onto a small canvas and put it into the window and then went out to do a bit of shopping and came across another of these little Jack Russell wheatpastes, this time he’s been censored! He’s on Instagram, he’s @theswanseajack

swansea jack

Queueing At The Chemist

queue pharmacy

Queueing today at the chemist (pharmacy). It took a while so had a quick scribble while I waited. It’s lucky that we’re having such good weather, queueing is pleasant enough, but it’s going to be horrible when the weather turns.

 

 

 

Scruffy, Bitey, Digital Cat

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Just doodling this evening with my Samsung Galaxy Note 8, a free app called “Markers” and Sparta Puss. She’s looking a bit scruffy because it’s Springtime and she’s moulting. She needs brushing but every time I get near her with a brush, she bites me. Hey ho.

 

 

Isolation

cut 1

I chose another word to carve into a small lino block today. I’d been playing around with lots of words and phrases that have become associated with the pandemic lockdown. But it isn’t just about choosing random text, but words that have some meaning and resonance for me. The first word I cut and printed onto a mask was “isolate” which was pretty much the first message of the lockdown. But I work part-time for a homelessness charity and as the weeks have gone by I have come to realise that for some people “isolate” has become “isolation” and is hard to cope with.

cut 2

Many charities, alongside the statutory services, are working flat out to develop different, safe and effective ways of supporting the most vulnerable people in society. If you have some time to spare, please check out some of their websites to see what they do.

crisis
Photograph from the Crisis website

Like An Iceberg

first stage b

Despite global lockdown, there’s loads to do; all those jobs that we’ve been putting off for years as well as getting creative. Making a work of art is often a bit like an iceberg, you only see the top 10%, the final bit of the process. Behind that work of art is a lot of thinking, planning, sketching, thinking, trying things out, thinking and …. more thinking before anything concrete happens. Today was one of those days, lots of thinking, some sketching, doodling, scribbling and even more thinking.

Didn’t do any cooking today, just warmed up the leftovers ….. lovely ……