Lino Block Printing Class

I took a wonderfully fun and surprisingly productive lino print class over the weekend at the Schack Art Center in Everett.  I have taken several printing classes there since the first of the year and I've learned a lot.

This plate is the original plate I carved and the one I did all the black ink only prints with.

The teacher for this two day class was Betsy Best-Spadaro.  I have taken one other class from Betsy.  You can find my blog post on that class here and here.  I always learn so much and have a great, fun time in her classes.

This is the plate that I carved away everything except where I wanted to print red.  

This is the design I came up with.  As my friend pointed out, it came from an old sweater I wear all the time, right down to the checker board detail.  And I hadn't noticed.....oh, dear.

elephant only plate, printed in gray

Of course, once I got into the design it became apparent that I was going to have to carve three blocks to get the print I wanted.  (In color, that is.)  Betsy was gentle when she confirmed that, yes, I had to cut away my elephant.  It hurt me but I did it.

Here is the red ink only plate after carving away every thing that was not to be reel

 I printed a few times using only black ink, before I reduced (cut away) the plate.  I do like it in just black and white.

Black prints drying on the drying rack.

A print all in black on the drying rack

 Here is the print in black and white.

And here it is printed in gray, red and black.

All the prints drying on my dining room table.

 I absolutely LOVED this class.  I'm taking another two day class from Betsy next month.  Stay tuned....