Project
Ochre Ground: New Linocut Editions
Six weeks of carving, inking and pulling on the old platen press.
The linocut work in this series began with drawings made straight onto the block, so the cut marks stay visible in the final print instead of being smoothed away. Each image is pulled in a small run on the 1970s platen press, which leaves the ink with a slightly uneven, hand-pressed surface. A modern cylinder press would flatten that out, and the prints would lose the thing that makes them worth looking at up close.
Registration is done by eye and by corner marks. Small shifts between sheets are part of the edition rather than a fault, and you can see them when two prints are held side by side. On open press days, visitors watch a run being pulled and notice how the same block reads differently depending on paper and pressure.
From drawing to block
The images start as direct drawings on the lino. Nothing is transferred from a finished sketch, so the carving keeps the hesitation and the corrections of the first pass.
Pulled by hand
The platen press is worked one sheet at a time. Pressure is set by feel, which is why the inking sits heavier in some areas and lighter in others across the run.
Paper changes the read
A softer sheet takes the ink deeper and dulls the line. A harder one holds the edge. The same block can look like two different prints depending on what it is pulled onto.