Thursday 8 March 2018

Completing the big one!

February 2018 will be in my memory forever as 'the huge linocut' and snow. It's not the best combination as Hot Bed Press can be truly icy at times, even when you're wearing 6 layers and a hat!

Fighting through the snow
The good news is that all the prints in the edition are finished and drying. I started with 12 and I think I have between 6 and 8 good ones in the final edition. I won't know for sure until I've checked them carefully and transported them safely home.

The finished A1 linocut
The framed print for the wall of the Macmillan Centre is due to be delivered to them on Wednesday 21st March. I just need to arrange framing and decide on a name for the artwork! It's all on track but the name bit is proving trickier than I thought. News later on this.

The final stages have been gruelling, not just down to the cold. Every time I estimated 'a day' of cutting, the plate seemed to grow. In total 'the big one' has taken 80.5 hours of cutting and printing. The cutting stage after the spot colours took 10.5 hours before I could print colour 4. Strangely enough, I massively underestimated that!

The final stage of cutting the lino plate
Below you can see the final stages of the process of building up this huge original print:
Printing the 4th colour at Hot Bed Press

After 4 times through the press

 
Printing the final colour on what's left of the plate

To see a video of the final stage of printing check out this News story on my website.

Jake Kennedy has featured me and the making of the giant Macmillan linocut on his latest blog Probably Prints. Thanks Jake!

To see more of my work, please check out my website: www.carolynmurphy.co.uk where you will also find an online Shop with currently available work. Thanks!