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....

Fun with FishBoy

Last weekend I was lucky enough to take two classes from Fred B. Mullett. Fred has become a friend and a fine (and exceedingly funny) friend he is. He calls me silly names and I call him FishBoy. I can't claim to have coined the phrase, my friend Bee did that, but it fits him well. Fred manufactures some of the most intriguing rubber stamps available, in my humble opinion. As a member of the Nature Printing Society, Fred has fine tuned his talent for Gyotaku, or fish printing (thus explaining his pet name, besides the obvious). Many of his beautiful rubber stamps are of fish and they all have the beauty of Gyotaku.


We learned a lot of very simple but extremely effective ways to turn a rubber stamp print into something much more interesting. With watercolors, embossing powders, colored pencils and a little patience, you, too, can turn your rubber stamp into a wonderful tool.


These are examples that I made during class. I was only trying to learn the techniques, not to make a perfectly enhanced print. (Process rather than product, as my ceramics instructor always said!) I know they are rough, but you can get the idea of what can be achieved with Fred's techniques.


It was really fun to take a couple of classes from Fred, and wonderful to see him again. (He recently moved from the Northwest to the Midwest.) If you get the chance, don't hesitate to sign up for anything Fred might be teaching.

Christmas Card 2008

I finally got my lino block cut and have now printed my Christmas cards for 2008. I have this yearly need to make my own cards. I've felt that way since I was a girl and it just makes me happy to do this little project once a year. I bought my cards for years when my children were younger but now that they are beautifully grown and gone, I have time to return to my favorite Christmas art project.

Here is the block in the process of being carved.

This is a row of drying prints.

The prints are then trimmed and matted to the backing red cardstock with those adhesive spacer thingies....the ones I never know by what name to call them!

Once the cards are matted, they are then glued to the front of the card.

And here we have a pile of the finished cards.

I can now check Christmas cards off my To Do List.