crossing the lino – final episode

We’ve come to the end of the four classes now, and here are the results of the last two. I was keen to think about birds and trees, plus Judy showed us how to experiment on different kinds of paper (the leaf is on rice paper, and the trees below are on different shades of tissue paper).

Rob has a very different style, his images have much more impact than mine do (not that it was a competition of course!) and he put a lot more effort into certain aspects of cutting than I did. As you can clearly see, our interests also vary widely:

The last pic was taken with my cell phone, the blurriness is due to my shaky hand.

Now that we’re in September, with the summer market season about to re-open and much sewing and screenprinting to be done, I can’t spend any more time on linocut printing experiments, but I will definitely return to Judy’s studio next year. We met some great people, drank some great coffee, and expanded our creative horizons. What’s not to like? :)

crossing the lino

They say you should try everything once. Whoever “they” are. So, here we go wiiiiiiiith…..PRINTMAKING with LINO 101 !!!

There’s this brilliant (and patient) Cape Town artist called Judy Woodborne who offers classes for beginners, so Rob and I signed up.  I forgot to take a pic of his first print, which was actually a really lovely and unusual design. Mine, less so:

  

I know what you’re thinking, it’s okay, you don’t all have to laugh at once. This was the first “design” I managed to scrape up off the top of my head – a tulip-y thing with leaves inside a very squonky box. But, hey, everyone has to start somewhere. And I have a whole week to practice before the next workshop.

Judy’s studio, Intaglio, is in the old, previously-abandoned Bijou Cinema in Observatory, and her space has been converted from what was once the projection room. Interesting in itself: curved walls with little windows at intervals for the projectors, and loads of exquisite etchings and extraordinary works of art on display.

PS. We also got freshly-brewed coffee and orange cake. It was a really lovely evening, well-spent in practicing patience and quiet thought.