From a pre-recorded printing demo produced specifically for this workshop. (Joanne Price)

Thurs. Oct. 29–Nov. 4 |  This workshop was well-organized, with the material list sent well in advance and some materials were sent to participants directly from Joanne Price, including one 1″ × 3″ practice and one 2″ × 3″ wood engraving block, a small amount of rubber-based ink wrapped in tin foil, thin print paper, and transfer paper.

I appreciated Joanne’s basic, clear, simple instructions and patience. There were some internet audio and visual issues during parts of the sessions that were moderated and worked through by Hamilton staff—I felt I got what I needed despite minor tech issues. The first Zoom session a half-hour long with time for a basic introduction to the wood engraving process. Handouts were sent via email with everything we needed for the four sessions and beyond, including links to two YouTube video demos that were very helpful. The second zoom session was 2 hours long and included introductions from everyone in the workshop. Joanne had two presentation screen views (top and side), and a large magnifying glass allowed us to see the details of the tiny marks. The most challenging part of this subject is trying to show the small marks and tool use details effectively. Joanne set-up the views and was patient in showing various views and repeating parts of the demo as needed. The third session was for in-process sharing and questions and troubleshooting, and the last session was a ‘Show & Tell’ with more info about the Wood Engraving Network.

We were instructed to divide our practice block into eight sections. This allowed us to test out value development and mark making in any way we wanted. Here is my test block:

We all developed a simple line drawing on tracing paper for the 2″ × 4″ block that was transferred to the prepared block in reverse using transfer paper. Experimenting with marks and getting used to the use of the tools was my primary objective.
Here is my first finished wood engraving of my 2″ × 3″ block. I ended up doing about three-stage proofs.