JANET JOPSON
Lino-cut
As a student at Harrow Art school, I always loved the physical process of LINO-CUTS. Carving lines with the sharp V shaped blades, through the linseed scented lino surface, then the ‘slick-slack’ sounds of the rolled ink, and slow lumbering of the huge Victorian cast Iron press,as a heavy roller passes over the lino on the metal bed, is a very satisfying experience. Then I lift the paper, to revel the new bright print, with always an element of the unexpected!
         


Playing in the sea

Beach huts

Estuary
Later,in the world of work, I did not have printing facilities at my studio, so after some years away from the craft,  I attended Printmaking Evening classes at my local Technology College and  started to produce Lino-Cut prints again.
I used my love of the technique, in my job as a Secondary School Art teacher.The students were able to achieved lovely results by simply rubbing the back of the Lino with a spoon or the ‘blade’ of the hand.

I quit teaching after 35 years, and was thrilled to be given an obsolete press on leaving. This is set up in my studio, and I am pursuing the exacting technique of Reduction cutting, in printmaking.
Here each colour is printed in a ’run’ of 10 – 20 prints, then the area to be retained as that colour, is cut away and the next transluscent ink is printed over this limited run, and so on for up to 5 layers. Eventually, the Lino piece is reduced to a ragged, destructed poor thing!
Mistakes cannot be corrected once the lino has been cut away, so every design is a cerebal activity!
Reduction Lino-cutting ,can be nerve racking and exhausting physically, but the life and movement created by the flicks and lines of the blade, and the emerging glints of colour, are stimulating and worth it! 








     
© 2006 Janet Jopson. All rights reserved.
 
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