Printing Pucklechurch - Pucelancyrcan

Many months ago now, on a wet and windy day, I was taken on a thorough tour of the village (and parish) of Pucklechurch in South Gloucestershire.  Starting next to the church and then working outwards, past houses old and new and out to the sites of the local mines, whilst finding out lots of the significant events and history of the area.

I'd been given a fantastic commission - to create an image that was part map, part history of the village, that could then be given to Pucklechurch's twin town Pringy in France to commemorate 25 years as twins!

Having attempted to absorb the entire history of the area, as well as remembering significant local buildings I then set to work, sketching a road layout and incorporating as many of the features that 'make' Pucklechurch (some historical events, some distinctive houses) as possible.

After a fair amount of head scratching and liberal use of tracing paper I settled on a layout that looked like Pucklechurch and had a good mix of historical and present day features.

Then to the real fun - carving this out of a sheet of lino, blade of grass by blade of grass...

Lino and wood printing blocks are often works of art in themselves, hand carved for many hours (as a mirror image of the final printed picture) and it is a nerve wracking moment when an ink roller laden with printing ink is first rolled over the lino block and the image is revealed as every raised area takes up the ink....but I think Pucklechurch is looking great here, even in reverse!

Then on to the job of printing all of the copies needed for this edition.  The carved lino block needs re-inking every time a print is taken and I printed this image using a boxwood burnishing tool rather than a press as it allows me so much more control over the pressure applied to the paper as the image is printed.

I've printed Pucelancyrcan/Pucklechurch as a limited edition of only 50 limited edition prints on Somerset Satin paper from St Cuthberts Mill in Wells.

Thanks to Gail Boyle for having the idea for such a great project!

Romans and holidays

Here's a little test print of a Roman image I'm doing as a commission (which handily is the same size as a greetings card, lets not waste any time here...).  Have you tried cutting fake mosaic in lino recently?  If so let me have your hints and tips please.

This is based on an Orpheus mosaic found near Bath many years ago and the rest of it is filled with great shaped animals, dancing to the wonderful music Orpheus plays, which I'm really looking forward to doing (in a pixelated way).

We've just got back from a great week away too, and I thought that this photo summed up the holiday pretty well - look at the weird mix of footwear that our little group decided on for a summer walk in the UK - we were definitely expecting and getting every type or weather that day!  Can't beat a week living in a field, washing in a bucket though...

recent commission

Here's the just inked lino block from a commission I completed a couple of weeks ago - you'll have to look at it in a mirror if you want to see what it looks like printed (no, don't use your computer, use a mirror, it will be much more fun)...

A little slice of Bristol, showing especially requested landmarks and features and really good fun to carve out, with all the little houses up on the hill above the docks.

I love the moment (usually) when you first roll ink onto a lino block and the image really reveals itself in such a bold way - no hiding any little bits you weren't sure about now, especially if you are using the blackest of black ink, which I usually am.

latest lino printing news

I've been really busy - sorry blog.  (I imagine a blog to be similar to a goblin or some other creature from fairy tales, maybe something from Labyrinth, that's why I am addressing it directly.)

Art trails, new prints, lovely commission, cushion printing, new stockists -  but the very, very small lead that feeds the computer from the camera has been missing for a while and so none of these things have been able to be transmitted to blog...

...and it has also been sunny for more than two days in a row, so I'm afraid I spent zero time looking for the very, very small lead and a lot of time 'checking' things in the garden and wandering up the road on errands.

The very, very small lead has now been found, so I'm afraid that there may be some 'old' news coming up in the next few days as blog posts that I had in mind a couple of weeks ago may resurface.

Maldon - the tea towel

I've had a lovely time designing a tea towel for Maldon in Essex and today the whole boxful are setting off for the tourist information centre in the town.  Maldon has everything - churches, boats, anglo saxons, swans and seagulls - what a great town!!

But wow, what a gloomy week - I really can't get a photo of the whole tea towel - one end is always lost in the mist when I try so I think it will be much quicker if you pop over to Maldon yourself and take a look at them in real life, is that alright?

guess the location...

I've been working on a lovely commission recently, an image of a town in England.  Here's a tiny corner of it - I wonder if it's possible to tell where it is from this?  Probably not!  I wouldn't have been able to before I started on this little project...

Fingers crossed that those that commissioned can tell!!