Jester Lino Print:

Throughout my research on masks I became interested in Italian masks, Venetian masks in particular. Back in the 13th century it became a tradition of wearing masks of all different kinds of celebrations and parties.

The main reason Venetian masks were worn was to hide identity which gave you the opportunity to mix and speak with whoever you wanted which may not have been so possible if you were unmasked. There were many different reasons that individuals wanted to remain anonymous, for example: age, gender, class, religion, status and more. BUT it was known to have been strictly forbidden to have worn one of these masks outside of the certain parties and celebrations.

There were a huge range of Venetian masks, some of the post popular being: Gnaga, Colombina, Bauta and so on. All of the masks were designed so differently to send out different messages, some masks would cover the whole face and then some would be more of an eye mask and some even came with a whole matching outfit! Originally the masks were made from materials such as Leather, Porcelain and even Glass. They were all decorated with beads, sequins, fabrics etc..

I started to focus more on Jester masks where there would be a Joker and a Jolly, a Joke would represent a male and a Jolly would represent a female. Each mask would be beautiful handmade and along with their mask they would wear such brightly patterned outfits to co-ord the whole way through. Jesters were actually a very important part of a party and were always invited to keep everyone laughing.

I decided to produce a Lino Print to show my research from the Italian Tradition, I chose for my design to be of a Jester. I simply took a 15 cm x 21cm block of Lino and drew my guidance lines upon it in pencil, after that I then went on to crave out my outline. I then took my Versafine Clair Ink pads and hand pressed them. I was actually quite happy with my outcome considering I used my own body weight as pressure to print rather than a print machine, I was happy with how solid my ink layer turned out.