Wednesday’s Women wood-engravers.

In the early 1980s it seemed there was a trend away from the tradition boxwood usually used in wood engraving. In Australia, while boxwood  was unavailable,  three women;  notable print-makers worked with ‘other’ woods and substitutes.

Edwina Ellis (1946-), who trained as a jeweler came to England to study metal engraving; but then discovered wood engraving, finding boxwood available but expensive, she used commercial products and plastic such as Delrin for her work.

Meanwhile. in Brisbane Margaret Lock (1950-) cut into marine plywood to illustrate stories by Samuel Johnson and Leo Tolstoy.  

Then Rosalind Atkins (1957-)took her printmaking to another level. She began experimenting with embossed prints from engraved blocks.  Using thick pulpy paper, the results were rather more sculptural and could only achieved by using industrial materials and equipment. It was told that she once used a tractor as a press for dramatic effect.