It Will Keep You Hopping

Week 3 for this current run of woodcut classes at the Boatworks.  A slightly different dynamic today, with one of the new people missing, and one of my most experienced students joining us for the last two sessions.  Jill decided to just take two weeks, mostly to get a refresher in printing.  She went right to the back table, where Mary (missing last week with an injury) joined her.  Mary was working on a new version of a previous print, an image involving a porch.  One of her New England contacts has invited her to put it in a show of white line prints she's planning for two years from now.  And this is just days after mailing out her editioned four block print to an exchange folio at PCNJ.  There's a committed printmaker.

My other class veteran, Joan, had finished cutting her block since last week and was ready to print, so I set her and Jill up with all the supplies and let them get started, They would each pull decent proofs of two blocks today.  Meanwhile, three of the new people were there, all working on cutting to start.  I had ordered tools for everyone, but perhaps in the chaos of getting ready to attend this year's SGC, the supplier didn't ship them until this past Wednesday, and so they won't arrive in New Jersey until next week.  Luckily I had my tool supply for them, and they all live close enough that we can arrange for them to drop by the Boatworks to pick them up before our last meting.  One had found some speedball ink and pulled a proof on her own, and after a few small changes, I helped her pull a better one.  The others just continued cutting.  Between the three tables I had people cutting, inking, and printing, plus I was tearing paper, and sawing blocks.  The two and a half hours can really fly by.  Everyone is well trained, so the cleaning was done quickly, just leaving me to finish sorting, packing, and to load the car.

We're off next week while some music events are scheduled, and then the last session for this series.  Then I'll check the BAC master calendar and see when we can schedule the next woodcut series.