A plethora of Birds

The carving of my lino swallow has made good progress.

Inky fingers

I managed to finish the pattern over the last couple of evenings. I must admit to not being very happy with the quality of my newly acquired lino tools. The set contained the basic v shaped cutters without the curved heads I normally use so I had to adapt my cuts somewhat. Realistically I will need to buy a new better quality lino cutting set similar to the tools I used to have.

 Tomorrow morning I will test print this pattern onto some linen to test the print and see if it requires more definition - I may decide to carve more of the wing area out.

And whilst Im on bird patterns (birds and exotic flora excite me no end) I wanted to show you some new tjap acquisitions: Two small single birds tjaps and one larger rotating repeat bird pattern tjap. They came yesterday all wrapped snug and sound in an excitingly heavy box.
Another big thank you Susan :)

This afternoon I cleared my kitchen table and laid the three blocks out ready to test print them on some paper with black water based ink.
My daughter however had other plans and quickly muscled me out of the picture, promptly positioning herself in the midst of ink and tjaps (my heart was sinking ever so gently at this point as the prospect of ink being daubed wildly in the air loomed rapidly)
Lo and behold, she expertly sponged the ink on and proceeded to block print a few random prints....it must run in her blood.