This project was fun as I had the oppportunity to work in a slightly different way from usual. When I went in to discuss the book - Cindy the publisher at Cico Books asked if I could do something in a linocut type style. By complete chance just a few weeks before I had done a one day Cardboard Printing workshop at the Curwen Print Studio near Cambridge. It was taught by the artist / illustrator Chloe Cheese and she showed us the technique that her mother Sheila Robinson also an illustrator / artist had developed in the 50s and 60s. She showed as some of her mother's prints and also the cut cardboard. They were amazing - so detailed and controlled and textured - just cut from cardboard.
Mine are totally crude in comparison - just cut shapes - but it gave me the idea to get the feel of a linocut printed background - without lino!
Below is one of the prints I did at the workshop. One of the things I most loved about the day (as well as the whole having a day a way from "real" work, a train journey through the bleak March Cambridgeshire countryside, spending time with my friend Jacqui (http://www.centralillustration.com/jm/jm.php), eating our sandwiches around the big table in the print room, chatting while we cut our card, printing..the train journey home...) was seeing how differently everyone had responded to and treated the cardboard.
Not very successfully printed - I know lots of women would like a permanently on call hairdresser or chef, I would like an on call print technician!
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