Seeing What’s Happening.

Graphite rubbing (left) and lino block (right).

I was doing some adult teaching with the 9-to-90 Creative Community today, working up some little lino blocks from the drawings we did last week of the Mari Lwyd down at Swansea Museum. I wanted to check how my block was coming along so I put a piece of tracing paper over it and rubbed it hard with a block of graphite (top of picture above) and I now have a better idea of what else I need to cut. You can do this by printing up a proof print, but that’s messy and I don’t want to get my ink and roller out for just one print. Using graphite and tracing paper is easier and cleaner.

Sketching The Mari.

I did a few scribbles of a Mari Lwyd to get some ideas for a new lino block. I’m running a series of sessions for the 9-to-90 Creative Community at GS Artists so I need a couple of references to work from, to demonstrate the technique. I generally start with a sketch, rather than a fully-worked up design, so that I can have a degree of freedom when I’m cutting the block. This is the one I’ve decided to use tomorrow for my teaching session.

It’s Mari Time!

Traditional grey lino with Flexcut tools.

It’s that time of year to start the annual Mari Lwyd lino cut, for my New Year greetings cards. I’m cutting two blocks this year, because I’m also running some lino-cutting sessions at the 9-to-90 Creative Community over the next few weeks, using the Mari Lwyd as our theme and I want to demonstrate the 2 different ways of cutting lino.

With this first block I’m cutting the lines I’ve drawn so that in the final print these lines will be white and the rest of the print will be black.

Squeegee Rescue

Today I was down at Swansea Print Workshop and one of the little squeegees gave up the ghost, the old rubber blade split. No problem, it can be repaired. I removed the three crosshead screws holding it into the wooden handle and prised the broken blade out with a flathead screwdriver, wriggling it at both ends until it came out. Then I measured and marked a section the same length from a roll of squeegee blade. It was tough and needed a sturdy Stanley knife for the job … the craft knife wouldn’t touch it. Finally, I tried to fit the new blade into the old slot. It wouldn’t go!!!!! It may be that the new blade is in Metric and the old handle Imperial. So that’s as far as I got today. The slot in the handle needs a bit of sanding, or maybe a router can do it.

Cat Cut Outs

I traced a drawing I did recently of Bill, our new rescue cat, and used it as a template to cut some cat shapes to have a play with. I recently recycled some textured papers, old prints that had been rejected. I squeegeed some acrylic inks across their surfaces to see what happened.

Bill’s silhouette is simple and effective against the different backgrounds. There’s such a difference between the two works.

Bellies And Budgie Smugglers.

I’m decluttering, sorting and storing loads of old work and I’ve been skimming through some old sketchbooks, loads of things I’ve forgotten. Here’s a page of sketches from the beach probably, about 9 years ago. There’s a good range of male body types here – the bellies are fun to draw but it’s surprising how many men were still wearing “Speedos”, or budgie smugglers as we call them round here.

Old Sketches And Warm Welsh Cakes.

I’m on a mission to sort out my art cupboards, declutter and store things properly. I’ve been flicking through old sketchbooks and finding all sorts of things I’d forgotten about, like these little thumbnail figure drawings, probably drawn from a book …. I can’t remember. They’re fun though.

I also made some Welsh Cakes. They’re called “pice ar y maen” in the Welsh language, which translates as “little cakes on the stone” – the griddle is also often called a bake-stone in English. I’m scoffing one now, still warm and fragrant with vanilla and nutmeg, loaded with juicy golden sultanas.

Art Community With Mari Lwyd.

The excellent 9to90 Art Community runs free art classes every Friday and I’ll be the guest tutor for the next few weeks.

“On Friday 3rd November we are starting a very special 3 week drawing and printing course with artist and 9to90 all time favourite tutor Rose Davies. The course is based around the Mari Lwyd, an ancient Welsh tradition where a life size puppet based on the skull of a horse is paraded through towns and villages to welcome the New Year.

Starting on November 3rd (at Swansea Museum. 1.30-3.30) Rose will guide you on drawing from a horse’s skull and a Mari Lwyd,

Preparing for class number two- A Lino cutting session in the second class on Friday November 10th (at GS Artists, 1.30-3.30pm) .

Then in the week three, the 3rd session on November 17th (at GS Artists, 1.30-3.30pm) we will be printing up your Mari Lwyd blocks on paper using chine collé, and onto natural fabric with textile ink.

Please book in via the Eventbrite link here, and it would be important to be able to come to all 3 sessions.

With free hot drinks, snacks and lots of chat, we look forward to seeing you.”

What’s Next?

As well as an artist, I’m an educator, working for decades in adult education, particularly with people who don’t normally fit into mainstream educational provision. I’m running a short introductory course in screenprinting at the moment, using paper stencils. The idea is to build up an image with several layers of ripped and/or cut stencils. I work alongside those I’m teaching, demonstrating the technique. Stage 2 completed – what next? Hmmmmm ……

Reusing Screen Inks.

There’s no glamour in being an artist, there’s loads of messiness and cleaning up. It’s also expensive and it’s important to reuse and recycle as many materials as possible. There’s always a lot of screenprint inks left over after courses at Swansea Print Workshop and if they’re stored properly they can be usable for months. It’s a bit of a problem finding the right storage system though. Glass jars are not very safe in a workshop setting and plastic polypockets can get messy. So today I tried out some small (10 oz) IKEA foodbags and they worked a treat. They look quite cute too.