Let your Light Shine Brightly
December 18th, 2021
Let your Light Shine Brightly
As light recedes and darkness fills the day’s hours, we in the Northern hemisphere are called to let our inner light shine brightly through the winter months. The solstice marks the darkest day of the year. December 21st is the first day of winter, when the light of day slowly increases until summer begins and the cycle of darker days returns.
As the light of day increases, we can let the light of our hearts increase also. There is so much our world has endured in these last years. There is much to be grateful for and so much to grieve.
Christine Torlina Linocut Print – Let Your Light Shine
LinoCut Block Prints
The art in this blog (except for the print directly below) was created in a recent holiday card making get together and a Mandala Circle gathering. Inspired by Christmas card block print linocuts made by my friend Lydia Ruffin over the years, Lydia showed a group of friends how to make these prints. Below is closeup of one of Lydia’s lovely cards from an earlier year.
Lydia Ruffin Christmas card closeup
During the card making get together I created a snowflake design that was easy to carve out of the linoblock.
Linocut block prints are made from a soft linoleum block that has been carved into with tools just for this purpose. Carving tips with different widths and shapes are put into the top of the holder and dug into the linoblock.
Once the linoblock is carved into, ink can be applied. We used different colored stamp pads to put ink onto the blocks.
Here’s my snowflake linoblock covered in different colored inks, ready to press onto paper and print.
Here is blue ink, the darker color is from the first printing and the lighter one made without adding more ink and pressing a second time.
It was fun trying out different ink colors.
After Lydia showed me how to create these cut out linoprints, I shared the how-to with in the Mandala Circle a few days later. Lydia’s card was the inspiration for Linda Massie. Linda copied Lydia’s design onto a linoblock.
When printed, the design is “backwards”. Both a lovely winter scene.
Christine Torlina’s linocut is a sunburst mandala that she printed with gold ink and wrote words with gold paint. They shine printed on both black and white paper. The black paper prints are shown above and below. Here is a white paper print.
Christine Torlina’s linoblock carving (left) and print (on right)
It was so much fun to create these linocut designs and print them with different inks and papers. You will be seeing more of this type of art here in future blogs.
It this time of Solstice, holy days and holidays let your light shine brightly as you bring the gift of your light to the world.
Enjoy & Create.
