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Here I was moaning that I couldn’t get into the print studio and your gentle rebuke that it was all about printing AT HOME: making do, doing the best with what you have, widening the circle of print makers, made me realise how much I have to be going on with at home.
So on Saturday May 2, my daughter (14) and I got out all the kit and had a look. I forgot I had a box of kids’ print making stuff from a holiday club I ran years ago. I asked her what kind of printing she would like to do (it’s always good to give her a choice, even if she has no choice about taking part! ‘What’s not to like about printing!? She’ll enjoy it at some stage or another’) and she pulled out the lino and cutting tools.

A couple of days before, we had been for a walk in the park across the road and I had picked up some seed pods (which I still haven’t identified). I had thought about printing from their clean sharp edge but I reverted to lino too. She cut straight in without drawing, a mountain. We talked about negative space and the line you cut being white, almost like a negative. She cut two more blocks in the time I took to get my block ready.
Note to self: I don’t recommend printing with cats: their fluff gets on the blocks, and they want to do their own printing too.

My daughter chose blue to start, she did a short run and I used up the last of it with a bit of red to make a deep purple. Then with a clean roller and plate we used green. She was done with one print on the second run. I used up the rest of the ink on fabric while she reverted to form: on her Ipad with Minecraft and writing stories. I find it hard to define the line between insisting she participate in craft for life experience and letting her crack on with what she’s interested in, but she said afterwards the time was ok, she was pleased with her results and she is happy they are being published in some form.
Thanks so much for the idea. I will certainly do it again: it wasn’t too much set up to turn my sewing room into a print studio, and we coped with river cobbles to rub the back of the paper instead of the big press in the Studio.
Thank you, A Williams in New Zealand.