Woodcut Class week 3.5

Even before the last woodcut class ended, Nellie was already asking about another bonus visit.  She had been told that because she would have to miss a week on vacation, we would make sure she still got all the teaching she was entitled to if she signed up for the class.  Shortly before the vacation (like that day) she arranged to come in early on a Tuesday, when I am going to be there anyway, and I made sure she got her first piece of wood and a quick exposure to woodcut tools.  Only 30 minutes.  As it turned out, she never touched the wood, which is why she had to do her drawing at the beginning of our last class.  She needed to do a tracing of her original drawing onto a transfer paper and was very happy that I told her about how she could use the window on our front door as a substitute light table, something that hadn't occurred to her. Now we have just one more meeting left, and she wants to do 3 small prints, and figured she could use any extra time she could get.

She ended up asking to come in today.  At least to get the other pieces of wood, and maybe some time with my student tools.  We arranged all this via e-mail, then met around 11:30.  A lot of work still going on in room #3, so that was out.  Molly wasn't in today, so I decided to use my Studio.  First I quickly cut two new pieces of wood for her. Her plan from the beginning was to do three small prints involving animals.  The first one, now mostly carved, was based on a large sculpture of an eel head. She has already ordered her own set of the tools we use, but they won't arrive until some time next week.  Meanwhile she also cut a block of pink rubbery stuff, which the cheap tools she has can handle, a white line image of a cat.   What she really wanted was for me to ink and proof these early efforts, using the paper she had.  Not easy, as the paper was cut to the exact size of the blocks and was kind of thick and stiff. But I can handle this.

Used water soluble relief ink, so we could easily clean it with water and everything would dry quickly.  I inked the eel head and the cat piece and showed her how to print then with a wooden spoon.  Then she inked and printed a second eel head, plus an eye she cut into the back of the rubber block.  Better ink and better paper would get us better results, and I'll have both for week 4 (though she plans to buy her own paper before then), but she was overall pleased with the results.  Thinks she might already be addicted to the process.  Well, it can have that effect, especially after the first print is proofed.

She went back up the stairs to do another tracing on the front door light box, then came back to the Studio to start drawing the second block- a bat with its wings folded up.  Then she wanted to get some cutting in.  I had told her she had access to me and the tools until 1pm, which would be an hour and a half, and complete the two bonus hours we had promised her.  We had done a cutting lesson during the last class, so I just handed her the class tool collection and let her get to work, sitting at my table.  Not sure exactly how far she got, but she seemed happy with what was done and excited about what will all be done next week in class.