Lucy’s coloring book

Yesterday I started working again so there was little time for art. I managed to make a drawing of a new carve:

I decided to carve a full 10×15 cm block. It perfectly fits a card when printed. Not that I need cards but I am curious…

I almost forgot. But all good. Today I finished carving my lino and did a test print.

I used my Sizzix machine for printing and it did a great job. I need to clean up the block a bit but I am really happy with how it all went.

Today was my last day of holiday and tomorrow I have to start work again. Thanks God it’s Friday!

Went to the dentist in the afternoon. Nothing to report.

Today I continued to carve the block from yesterday, but I had only an hour so didn’t achieve much. Here’s a small one I did three days ago when I forgot to blog.

I took Mother to Kika to get some lamps and we bought some other unnecessary stuff of course. Yesterday my neighbor made me a bench hook, so I can finally get my fingers out of the way when carving. Here it is:

Safety first or second or third… after I don’t know how many years of not hurting myself without it, I am finally safe 😃

Yeah, I forgot again. Anyway, here’s one I started today:

It’s real hard linoleum. I bought a small pack of ten squares made by Essdee and took one out for practice today. It took some time to figure out how much pressure to apply, but I am happy to report that I am getting there and already making less mistakes. Really looking forward to continuing this in the morning.

We had a walk in the forest despite the cold. It seemed warmer among the trees than in the street. Then I cooked dinner using one of the recipes from one of the books I recently ordered. It turned out great and we were really happy to eat something different. And vegan… I think we can manage to cut down on meat and cheese, but I definitely need help with learning how to cook new stuff.

Went swimming in the morning and then walked with Lola. The weather is very nice today – I even took off my gloves and Lola’s jacket. The carve I am posting is from yesterday:

I love the thin lines that are possible to carve on lino. The printing is a bit imperfect, but that’s ok.

Before I forget to post… here’s one from yesterday. I used the stamp from few days ago and removed some more lino, so I think it looks better now. I printed in yellow and magenta first, but it was screaming at me, so I added a few black prints on top. I really like how the bottom color can be seen through. I will experiment with this more 😊

We went to market today. It was cold and windy, but we managed to go for a long walk after. I cleaned and cooked and now I am spent. An hour or two of TV and off to bed…

And I missed a post yesterday. Cannot say why. Anyway, this is what I did:

Carved a bigger piece of lino. This is one inch. My usual size is 2 cm. I really like printing with printing ink because the colors are bright and strong. I also very much like carving soft linoleum. So much better than rubber. I can achieve very thin lines and print many times and wash the block with brush and it doesn’t crumble.

We went to make blood tests in the morning and got our results. Nothing very bad, but I have to increase further my D3 daily dose. We also have cut down on meat and sugar. So, I will be exploring vegan and vegetarian cookbooks this year I think…

Someone suggested yesterday on IG that glueing my lino to a cork may help ease the printing, so that is what I did today. And it worked. I do plan a bigger carve for tomorrow though.

We went for a walk in city park today. The weather is very nice lately, cold but sunny and dry so it’s really nice that we can go out in fresh air this time of year.

Here’s another try at lino carving and printing.

Lesson learned: I need to carve bigger pieces because small ones are almost impossible to print. I love how black this ink is. I could never achieve this blackness with stamping ink.

Today I received my order of art supplies. I have some new lino to try, some new carving tools and printing ink. Here’s the first attempt at printing with real printing paint.

Of course I had to get a neon magenta 😊. Printing was not easy because my brayer is dirty and my two new ones are in Slovenia, so it will take some time to get nicer prints. But this was a nice exercise.