Lesson Two of the LIno Cutting

I have finally got around to starting lesson two.  It is only about 2 weeks late but better late than never.
We were asked to work on a design that has balance and movement and the example we were given had a tree, so I used a picture from our trip to Uluru.

It hasn't turned out quite how I envisaged it but I won't change much yet, I will give myself time to think about it.  I am not used to lino cutting and printing and how the cut away parts can be in the image.  It also took a lot of cutting, so I don't want to do much more to it just yet.

While I have been researching ideas for other work, I came across some information about fossils that have opalised.  So I cut out a design and then used mixed colours on the lino to try to get the effect.
I wasn't sure whether to cut this out for the negative or positive image but I am quite happy with how it has turned out and this one has much less cutting and was much faster to do!

As I said, the printing takes little time at all - the work is in the designing and cutting.  Of course, I have only printed small samples, not large amounts of fabric.  Now all I need to do is think of what I might use the fabric samples for - if I don't just put them in my visual diary. The samples above are approximately 20cm x 16cm.