Japanese Woodblock Printmaking Course

On that freezing cold Saturday in February I went on a printing course at Artworks Mk in Great Linford, Milton Keynes. It was a beautiful drive with the trees covered in frost. I really wanted to take lots of photographs at home but it took me ages to defrost the car and I didn't want to be late for the course.

It was a wonderful setting, as you can see from the photographs.

This is the cafe, exhibition centre and reception building.

The beautiful hall in the park.

Great Linford church.

The course was with Laura Boswell, a printmaker whose work I love. If you don't know of her, take a look at her website. www.lauraboswell .co.uk

Laura demonstrated at Art in Action last year. She learnt water based woodblock printing in Japan during an 8 week residency with a master carver and printer.

I have done some wood cutting but this process is very different from inking up a block with a roller. It is an ancient printing form in Japan and comes with all the rituals one would expect from that country. There are special cutting tools (similiar to lino cutting tools) and a clever, precise way of registering prints.

Laura suggested we started with a simple design that we could complete in a day.

I settled on a simple landscape, which we drew and then transferred to tracing paper, all with an exact frame drawn to relate to the size of paper we were using. Carbon paper was used to transfer the design onto the block.

This would be cut as 3 blocks, mine could be fitted on one piece of ply. The initial outline is cut with a hanghi to.

Cutting in progress and below the tools.

My cutting finished. The notches for each block are the kento slots for registering your prints.

Laura demonstrating placing the Nori paste (made from rice flour) onto the block....

and mixing the water colour paint with the Nori paste on the block...

The printing is done by hand, using a baren, the paper proteced by a piece of silicone paper.

Here's my block with 2nd block inked up ready for proofing, which Laura does on lining paper.

Here are 2 blocks printed....

the 3rd block ready to print....

and the proof....

I then experimented with colours on Fabriano paper; by the way, this method always uses damp paper, which needs to be kept damp throughout the printing.

and a close up....

This has some splodgy edges where I had too much paint/ Nori paste but OK for a first attempt. It is an interesting process which takes endless practise to get a feel for the method.

Laura says 'It can be unforgiving, wasteful and often tiresome, but the end result is so wonderful that it really is worth the effort.'

Obviously in a day we learnt the basics; colours can be built up by printing layers of colour and there are effects such as bokachi (shading) to give more depth or texture.

It was a lovely day and I enjoyed learning the processes of this ancient Japanese art form. I have to mention what a good tutor Laura was, highly organised and it was one of the best courses I've taken.

I have all the tools now.....

Log cabin completed

Last week I realised my log cabin design was dry enough to print the final colour; it was going to be blue but I changed my mind and went for a deep purple. Here we are ready to print.

I masked off the middle of each print so it got no purple on it.

 I was a bit nervous, as being a reduction lino cut if I messed up the placing......

........but luckily it went OK.

I wanted to get a bit of a retro feeling, like the log cabin bed spread I started in the '70's. I knew it was all lurking in a bag somewhere and found it last year. I had loads of strips ready cut and some squares ready to put together, so I made a few more squares and joined them up to make a throw rather than a huge bedspread which would never get used. It needs backing, quilting and edging of course!

This is full of memories, curtains made, a shirt for me, the dressing gown I made to go into hospital to have Louise, dresses for Louise and me.

On this square the brown and white crepon was left over from the very first dress I made myself in the 60's, I do wish I had it now! Also the material I made a button through dress with, to go over my hot pants - worn with the skirt part unbuttoned - wish I had a photo!! A lot of the fabrics are Laura Ashley; I used to shop at their first shop in the King's Road, where they just sold fabrics. It's a shock to realise the fabrics are 40 to 50 years old!

Log cabin in progress

I've been a patchwork and quilter for many years and have thought for some time about a log cabin lino cut. I found a design I had sketched and decided it had to be a reduction cut.

 I forgot to photograph the 1st cut and 1st colour, which was yellow. I then cut away the areas I wanted to stay yellow and over- printed with red.

This design is a small edition of 12, here they are drying....

and a close up of the print so far.

It is actually on a creamy white paper, 300g Daler Rowney smooth water colour paper which takes the inks well. I now need to cut away areas that I want to stay red.

The prints won't be dry enough to print the next colour for a few days, so I decided to print my new lino cut, called Home.....

I cut this design on the grey hessian backed lino, which I hadn't used for a while, preferring the thin floor tiles I use. Using really sharp tools and warming it I found it OK, but it can be a bit crumbly.

Here's the result....

This is a limited edition of 50 and here's number 1 framed and ready to go to The Art Nest gallery in Hitchin this week, together with another 'Love' image to replace a sold print.

Happy New Year

Happy new year to everyone, rather late I know but it's been busy with my son back from Oz, hospital appointments, playing tennis, working on my website, printing, Barney sitting, taking prints to an exhibition, a new private pupil this week and 2 lessons to plan for tomorrow. I do wonder how I taught 34 children full time and remained sane - well almost!

 Interesting times also in that I did my meditation practise for the first time at a Buddhist Temple; the next morning I found myself unexpectedly sitting in on a water colour class watching James Willis painting  - a varied life!

I'm getting the feel of my press, last week I had more fun....

This is to mark the birth of my grandson and is an example of the Special Event commissions I do.

Ready for St. Valentine's Day, a LOVE lino cut with a chine colle heart .......

and the same design printed on sheet music.

The next print links birds and song......

my guinea fowl feather lino cut on sheet music. A bit of a tenuous link, as of course no-one could call the noise guinea fowl make, a song or musical!! We kept them on our farm and my mother hated the noise. They're one of my favourite birds; I love their shape and the beautiful patterns of the feathers. I also like eating them.....

Festive spirit...... part 2

The best part of this Christmas is having my son Will with us, even if it meant leaving here at 4.25am yesterday to meet him at Heathrow!! Great time to go of course and we were home by 6.30. It's good to see him again and I'm glad he's ' boomeranging' back here before some more travelling.....maybe....we shall see.

I made this tree from the tutorial on Lesley's blog...

It worked out well and I would make another if I'd kept all those Boden catalogues but I have been seriously clearing 'stuff' out over the last year or so... very therapeutic for me....my god daughter who now deals in vintage clothes can't get over me sending my Laura Ashley dresses to the charity shop!!

Anyway, I digress! The John Lewis catalogue looks good so no need to add paint or glitter.... thanks Lesley!

My present to myself is a beautiful, old, very heavy....

book binding press. It's a long story but briefly I bought it a few months ago and recently a friend kindly took me up to Shropshire to collect it and my strong young builder has now added putting a book binding press together to his CV!

The postman brought parcels containing inks, barens and brayers and yesterday I made a start.

My cardboard cut blackbird inked up and ready to print... and the first print...

Not bad but I can see that using different inks and press I will need to experiment with inking up and the amount of packing sheets. I took a few lighter prints to hand colour later...

I then tried one or two lino blocks...

 and with a bit more experimenting got a good guinea fowl feather print...

You don't get the same 'touch' as with the presses at the Curwen but no doubt I will develop a feel with this press - and some good muscles!! It's going to be fun being able to work at home when I feel like it, and maybe hold classes here next year? The long term wish list is a baby Albion press and an etching press (small one!) but this is a great start!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Festive spirit....part 1

It's been a few years since I spent Christmas at my own house but this year both my children are here, as Will visits from Oz and will be staying a while for hospital visits. It has been a challenging year and we hope for healing and love in my family throughout 2012. Of course, having an 18 month old grandson living round the corner is reason enough to celebrate; Louise, Mark and his parents will be here on Christmas day and Barney of course!

Earlier today Barney came to help me decorate the tree, he was fascinated with putting the decorations on. It's a great shape, having a fat, wide bottom! I had to move furniture to get it in but certainly worth it. Seeing the decorations after some years brought memories back... the nativity figures were bought in Maryland in 1994, my first holiday abroad on my own after some difficult years. They're made from corn husks and the animals date from my children's farm collection.

 I'd forgotten the box of fabric decorations I made, I used to sell these in a previous life...

Memories.... decorations given to me by children I've taught ...a glass boot...

a funky Father Christmas....or is it a Mother Christmas?

a relic from my corn dolly period....

...a peg doll is our 'fairy' at the top of the tree....

...decorations from my travels, a ship in a bottle from Annapolis in Maryland...

a doll from Hong Kong......

and a joey from Oz...

 

and these 'walnut babies' a friend used to make in the 70's - they're so cute!

a baby in half of a walnut shell, appropriate as I live at The Walnut House...

My 2011 tree, looking forward to a happy family time...