We finally did lino cuts! I’ve wanted to do them for soooo long, but I was always very weary because, you know…. Sharp implements + children = !!!!!

But something about Easter made me feel brave (maybe it was all the chocolate….?) and so, we went for it. We kept our designs simple as this was our first experience and our intention was to get a feel for the tools, the lino and the concept of positive and negative space and how this transfers into print.

We talked about how the print comes out as the reverse/opposite of what you carve and how that affects any text/words used. I did advise eveyone to keep their design to images only and they did. Except for one. There’s always one – and I LOVE that! Art is about pushing boundaries and though you might be given advice or feedback, ultimately, it’s your decision what you choose to do in YOUR creation and in my opinion, when it comes to art, you can never be wrong.

I was very thorough with my safety briefing, making sure each artist knew the correct way to handle the lino cut tools and to always, ALWAYS carve AWAY from themselves and to always, ALWAYS keep their supporting hand BEHIND the sharp lino cut tools.

Sadly, we did end up with a few scrapes and jabs. We finished the lesson 3 from 3, a 50% success rate (or failure rate, depending on whether you see the glass half full or half empty).

For our first attempt, I’m pretty chuffed!

xx