First attempts

- in this case twice over.  This image was the first exploration into serious self expression - something to occupy me creatively while I was unable temporarily to pursue my career in publising.  It was inspired by a silversmith friend who always wore her stunning neckpiece, and the trees which surrounded our temporary home in New Hampshire.  This image started me on quite a journey.

I used the image again on my last class before Christmas to make a linocut to try out hand burnishing, and I was delighted with these first faltering steps when I picked up the prints on Friday.  The above print was done using a baren on Lokta paper with tiny leaves embedded (from Papershed at George Weil).  I was pleased to see what a range of results came from the same plate, but with different papers.  The one below is also Lokta paper, but this time with what looks like straw embedded:

The other difference with this print is that I used a wooden spoon rather than a baren.  And as luck would have it, the scribbly nature of my printing goes with the paper (or so I think).

Notice also the change of colour with the change of paper.  I used the same black relief ink throughout the exercise, but some papers, perhaps most noticeably in the plain newsprint above, have made the black look reddish.  

And yet when I used printed newsprint (i.e. a sheet of newspaper - The Saturday Guardian) the black stayed black.  As it did when I used a sheet of newsprint which I'd coloured by cleaning my roller on a previous occasion.

My most conventional prints were both done with a baren, 

one on a fine Japanese paper (the teacher had forgotten which one it was), 

and the other on Zerkall which she recommends for lino prints.  For those of you who are interested it is 120gsm white smooth.  It feels and looks lovely.