…and it’s getting bigger! Namely, the enrollment for my linoleum-printing class at the Dickens Universe in July is growing. The Dickens Project, organizer of the event at UC Santa Cruz, have been promoting the class in their newsletter and on Facebook, and it’s getting results. 17 so far have enrolled and I believe they’re limiting it to 40, which should be workable.
Many of the enrollees have posted questions, however it’s all posted on a Google sheet, not set up to easily post answers. They did start asking folks for email addresses, so that will help.
I made an instructional video about the whole process, as well as talking about the beginner’s linoleum-printing kit I’m recommending, and hopefully, answers to a few of their questions. Working with this set of beginner’s tools was a good education for me! I left in as much of the trial-and-error as I could stand.
The “Speedy Carve” block was a little softer than I liked,
but printing with my fingers was a surprise.
I’ve also been pulling prints of a selection of images that I hope will prove popular to the audience at The Dickens Universe: my portrait of Dickens, which, if you want to know the truth, is the only image ever done of him smiling! Smiling either for a portrait or photo was literally frowned upon in Ye Olden Days, but I wanted him to have a bit of a grin.
A few of the other images I felt might be important to devotees of BLEAK HOUSE: the human blunderbuss Mr. Boythorn, and his parakeet, which will be featured on the street banners hanging all over downtown Santa Cruz; Miss Flite’s array of caged birds (lots of bird imagery in BH btw!); and the heartbreaking showdown between the evil lawyer, Mr. Tulkinghorn (All the lawyers in BH are evil, btw) and the mysterious, distant Lady Dedlock, whose terrible secrets are about to be revealed.
each one different, each one an original work of art.
The printing process has gone well considering the size of the task. I find that if I’m away from linoleum work for a length of time, when I return to it the work becomes easier and more fluid, like I’ve internalized it just a bit more.
I’m looking forward to participating in the festivities of The Dickens Universe and the class most of all. Sharing the fun of this block printing medium will be a very rewarding part of the fun for me. You can still sign up for the class!
Thanks for reading all the way down here. I will leave comments open for any students or curious readers who may have questions.
