Fun with lino-cut

My first lino-cut attempt! I chose a design that was loosely inspired by peonies and it ended up being a bit too small and plain to stand alone, so I used it to make a repeated pattern.

I wish I could say that the disorderly positioning of the flowers was intentional, but that's just what happens when you try to align multiple prints (with the lino block under the paper) without using any guides. I've got to find out how the pros do it!







These purple prints were made using a tiny ink pad meant for rubber stamps, because I was getting tired of black. I had to stop after three prints though, because the ink was starting to ooze out of the pad. Oops.





I think lino-cut is great way to get started with print-making, because the materials and tools don't cost a lot (I paid less than S$40 for everything), it involves just two steps: carving and printing, and you can find plenty of great lino-cut tutorials online. Give it a go!

Day/Night in Ho Chi Minh City

More photos from my trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam:





















the Saigon Opera House, a ship that's also a restaurant, Ben Thanh Market & random street shots (my favourite is the one with the 'HOTEL' sign)

Have I mentioned that I love my new 50mm f1.4 lens? The nighttime & low-light shots turned out nice and bright, despite the fact that I was shooting handheld with ISO 400 film.

Vietnam: Food

Bò lúc lắc (pan-seared beef) with noodles and a glass of thick iced Vietnamese coffee. So. Good.




Chả giò (fried prawn spring rolls)


Bánh tráng (Vietnamese rice paper) is used in many dishes. It looks and feels like plastic when dry, but becomes stretchy and floppy when wet.





I visited Vietnam for the first time last December and found everything about it fascinating: the country's tumultuous history, the 6 million motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City, the language, the busy cities and the open countryside, and, of course, the food.

On our first day in Ho Chi Minh City, we ate at Pho 2000, a small, touristy restaurant near Ben Thanh Market (the first 5 photos). This eatery is famous because there's a photo on the wall that shows Bill Clinton dining there. Despite (because of?) the hype, the food was delicious, and so was everything else we ate during the trip.

(If I got any of the Vietnamese words wrong, please feel free to correct me!)

Inspired by: Lino-cut

Made by: (from the top) Nick Morley, Dallas Spiller, normat studio, Nicolas Burrows, Jason Needham

Now that I've ventured into the world of lino-cuts (I'm currently working on my first design!), I have a deeper and more profound appreciation for the amazing prints that others have made using this technique. I look at my own grubby prints, then at these, and think "How on earth did they do that?"