What a difference good equipment makes.

They say a poor workman blames his tools.  I'm not sure that having good tools makes you a better worker (or designer) but it sure makes the work easier.
I decided to splurge and buy a couple of better quality lino cutting tools.  I got u-shaped tools as the person selling them said they were easier to use than the others I was looking at. As I am such a beginner at this technique, I decided to take his advice.
They are certainly much easier to use, and will do much finer work, than the cheaper tools I already had.  They were the sort used in schools, good enough to do the job but not high quality.  What public school can afford the best quality in class sets?  I only got two as I am not sure where I am going with this technique and how much fabric I want to produce.

I went back to the Uluru tile and cut away the sky part.  I still need to cut more away but thought I would do it in stages.  It is easy enough to cut away but impossible to put bits back.

Then I started working on an image I copied from a photo I took in France last year.  It is perfect for practising my texture mark making.  So far I haven't done all the mark making. I thought that, once again, I would print it in stages, just to see the differences. More work to be done on this.

Then I tried a small tile.  I took a photo of gum blossom and traced that.  I need to cut more of the background out - again.  I suppose I will get a better feel for how much to cut off when I get more experienced.