Another fun lino printing class

Last month I held another lino cutting and printing class in my studio. Louise, Pippa and Nettie joined me for an introduction day. I'm really enjoying sharing my passion for lino cutting: I find the whole process exciting; from the designing, cutting, mixing inks, inking the block, choosing the paper and then that moment of lifting the corner of the paper......

Cutting your design takes a lot of concentration.

  Busy, busy, busy.....

                                         

                                                                         

                                    
Nettie's bamboo

Pippa's landscape.....

and Louise's winter tree. All different, all their own work and lovely results... very exciting!



New addition to my studio

I recently needed to move furniture around in my studio, to make room for a new addition.... here's a plan chest on the move... luckily I'm strong and I put felt pads on the base when I bought it, so that I could move it easily.

Here's the new arrival, on it's side in the hall - it was a bit of a struggle to get it this far!

Down the step and tipped upright.....

..... a lovely cabinet.....

and 33 drawers causing chaos around the house....

The cleaning process started enthusiastically.... it took over 2 hours to hoover, wash and polish the frame, then I began cleaning the drawers. All needed washing inside and out, the glass cleaning, some sticky sellotape deposits removed and then lots of polishing.

Luckily the cabinet arrived in the fortnight between my 2 Christmas open studios, which gave me a week to get it clean inbetween other committments and my studio tidied and ready for visitors. I'm not sure why these things always seem to happen when I'm under pressure.....

11 drawers clean, 22 to go....I couldn't resist putting a few things in, to encourage me to carry on cleaning (never my strong point!)

... only 5 more, yippee!

At last, all sparkling clean and in use. I just love it. Already I'm benefitting from knowing exactly where things are. Several drawers are awaiting contents; it's fun deciding how to organise everything.

I had been looking for something similiar for a year or so. It was rescued from a derelict electrical factory in Sheffield and was a much larger bank of drawers which were made into 2 cabinets. I really like the feeling of bringing an old, unloved piece back to life. It will be in constant use and already has been much admired.