Woodcut Class Week 2

I had the room all ready to go, just had to get some students there.  And when you have only two students in the class, you notice when they are not there.  Made sure all the doors were open and unlocked.  Then a few minutes after 6 I had a student arrive.  But that was it.  I delayed anything new for a few minutes in case the other one showed up, but I decided it wasn't fair to my student who was present to hold things up much longer and started the process.

She had used the week since the first meeting to come up with a idea, and had drawn it on the wood block.  The letters all looked properly backwards.  So we began the lessons.  Showed how one properly holds and uses the various gouges.  Brought out some bench hooks, so she could see one in action and she decided to use it.  Demonstrated how to cut various things on the block.   All standard stuff.  Woodcut takes a few minutes to demonstrate, a lifetime to master.

She decided to outline her block image first.  I tend to do the same thing, but I didn't tell her to do that.  When that was finished, she went on to the face of the subject.  A lot of delicate cutting will be coming, but she made a lot of progress, producing a large supply of wood shavings, which we cleaned up.  Even showed her how to take a pencil rubbing on paper to check her progress.  

The project has a long way to go, but she was pleased with the progress, which was much more than she had expected in one night.  I told her we'd pick up where she left off when the class continues next week.