I did it! This is my first original lino print.

I can't believe I did this! Ever since Art in Action I've been fascinated with printing. With the transfer of ink from a design onto paper.At Art in Action I saw and met amazingly talented people who carved and printed the most exquisite prints and ever since I saw that I wanted to give it a try.The other day, when I was in our market town, I stopped by the art store and bought a small piece of lino and some tools for cutting.Of course what I wanted to carve is a lino cut which looks like this:But I decided that might be jumping the gun a little...lol, so I drew some simple stylised seed heads on a piece of paper and drew that simple design onto the piece of lino.Then I started trying the tools. Ok, let me tell you this: If you want to cut a piece of lino, DON'T BUY ART STORE TOOLS!!!Those tools slip and skid and tear at the lino edge and you need the strength of Hercules to wield them.It was only when Robbie gave me his utility knife that I really started to make progress. (There must be a source of good lino cutting tools for me to find)But finally my printing block was complete and I was so excited to start the inking.One thing's for sure, lino takes a lot more ink to make a successful transfer than the metal blocks I was printing.So, after a couple of tries, I think I got a pretty good print from my first ever lino design.From concept to pattern to block to print. This was such a very fulfilling bit of work for me and now I really want to cut a bigger and more complicated design. :)