Kneading bread

Linoprint. Printer's ink and lino block, printed on watercolour paper. 

 OK, I'm pretty happy about this. I've had this carving block for several years, always afraid to cut into it. Then Ivy did some very successful lino carving at Christmas and finally I had enough courage today to try it. This is from a photo of my grandma about 60 years ago, kneading dough with my cousin Kathy standing on a chair, looking on. 

I pulled about 8 different prints on different types of paper. I'm certainly pleased with the sharpness of the lines, and the carving itself was really fun. I traced the photo onto the block by rubbing the back of the photocopy with graphite and then setting it onto the block and using a pencil to draw the picture. The graphite transferred nicely onto the block. I'm speculating that the flecks are from not enough rubbing during the printing itself, or from overly textured paper.