The 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. It rained today for the first time in ages and Sparta Puss commandeered myContinue reading “The First Cut”

Lino, Love Hearts And Leftovers Pie

More little grey lino blocks cut and lettered, in reverse, ready for carving and …. 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 CaligoContinue reading “Lino, Love Hearts And Leftovers Pie”

Rough Cuts

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 myContinue reading “Rough Cuts”

Technical Issues

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 roundedContinue reading “Technical Issues”

Zoom, Lino Cuts And Digital Exclusion

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 throughContinue reading “Zoom, Lino Cuts And Digital Exclusion”

The Rainbow And The Censored Dog

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

Isolation

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 printedContinue reading “Isolation”

I printed my little lino block “isolate” onto fabric to make a mask but I also printed some on paper as well, as I’m thinking of taking it into different materials and formats. I did a couple onto white Hosho paper and then tried them out on different coloured papers made from recycled saris. HusbContinue reading

A Pandemic Mask

So after several days of cutting cloth, cutting blocks, printing and sewing here’s my first pandemic mask. I carved the word “isolate” into a little lino block as the basis for the work. I hope it will be the first of many. I learnt as I went along. My sewing skills are rusty – soContinue reading “A Pandemic Mask”

Pandemic Printmaking And A Wheatpaste Dog

    I’ve been working on a new art project, a response to the pandemic and lockdown. It’s taken me a while to get ideas coming through but I think this will probably end up being quite a big body of work made up of many components. I’ve carved a little lino block and printedContinue reading “Pandemic Printmaking And A Wheatpaste Dog”