A new technique

I am a person who likes to know a little about a lot of things. In that respect I have taken classes and workshops in subjects and techniques that I never intended to take any further than just to know what it's about. Also, I think it's healthy to continually acquire new knowledge, it keeps the brain alive and active.

So my latest attempt at learning something new happened last night. Our local culture house is celebrating it's 5 year anniversary, and as part of it's program there was a graphic's workshop. I  found out about the workshop from my friend Spindelmaker Janne Robberstad. She's a wonderful costume designer and textile/multimedia  artist and a lot more, you really should check out her blog! I didn't know exactly what to expect, so I just turned up, open for whatever would be presented.

It turned out to be a hands-on workshop in lino-cutting and printing. We started by making a drawing of our design. Help! Give me some kind of tool, and I'm in heaven, but I'm totally challenged with pencil and paper. So I decided, in desperation, to settle for some very simple lines. After all, my intention was to learn the technique, not to make an incredible work of art :-) 

So, this is about as simple as it gets:

Next I traced it over to thin wax paper, 

and then transferred it to a piece of linoleum,

(you know, the stuff that our parents/grandparents had on their floors).

The next step was carving out the design:

Then I rolled paint onto the lino-carving, placed a piece of paper over and under, and rolled it through a roller press (sorry, didn't get pictures of this part, I was too focused on the process).

And voilá, a humble piece of art!

The finished picture becomes a mirror image of the carving.

Not tooo bad, if I may say so myself. Actually, I rather proud of it :-) 

Here I am, carving away. Way into the workshop I remembered that 

"I have a blog" and "I need a picture of me doing this!"  

So I got the instructor to take some for me :-)

Here is the finished product of my second design.

And finally, a bonus image; a relief print of the first design.

Like I said initially, I don't intend to take this any further, 

but I can see how I could use the technique in small scale

 f.ex. to make little stamps for scrapping cards :-) 

Thank you Janne, for posting about the workshop, 

and drawing my attention to it!

I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!