New teatowels featuring Hares and Crows

Very excited to share these two new tea towel designs - Three Hares and Flock of Crows. They are two of my favourites and it is great to be able to have them as teatowels as well as original lino prints. I know lots of people hang tea towels as wall hangings too, so multi purpose! These have been printed onto unbleached organic cotton and are now listed in my online shop just HERE - ready for posting out around the world :)

Wagtails - lino cut print

A new mini-print to add to my growing selection of bird lino prints - Wagtails These birds are always a joy to watch and I have a pair living just in front of my house so I had to draw them. The sketches have evolved into this little lino print, with the Wagtails bobbing and rushing around, ever busy as in real life! This lino block printed really well too, and it was a satisying print to start editioning with all those little birds being revealed each time. In my online shop just HERE if you would like to see any more details...

Tea towels for Autumn fairs - real life and virtual...

Stocked up with a new batch of British Wildlife and Bristol tea towels in these amazing zingy colours - great timing as I have a few dates in the diary for the Autumn in real life and also in virtual life.

I have added them to my ETSY SHOP too if you want to hop over and take a look there - at the moment they are available in Pink, Yellow, Blue, Grey and just a couple of Peach.  Looking forward to seeing which colours are the popular ones this season!  A bright pop of candy pink could be just the thing...

 The Bristol tea towels are going to head off to our local Etsy Pop Up shop this Christmas, but I am sure they will find their way online too before the month is out.

Lino printing in gold ink

 Here is a peek at my Bristol lino print in gold coming up off the lino block - always a good moment when it has worked well.  I've started using gold ink for some of my lino editions and really enjoy the way it makes them look.  I think this lino print, with lots of little buildings, works really well in this colour way.  The gold does show up really well on white paper too, but this black Stonehenge paper is the one for me.

Lino print sort out!

I have spent the last few days having a studio sort out - always a dangerous task to start as who knows what will be unearthed in the process.

These Seagulls have re-appeared from the bottom of the lino print drawer.

Lots of unfinished lino blocks too, all asking for a bit of attention....

New Three Hares lino print

I've just had a jolly old time making this big hares lino print!

My 'Line of Hares' (the smaller print) has been really popular and I have loved printing it, so I decided to play around with the scale a bit.  I'm so happy with the result as well.  I think of them as 'big' because I am so used to seeing my usual quintet, but they are actually about 16 cm high.  With so much more black in the image they are a little harder to print as i am still hand burnishing them, but definitely worth it.

Lino Print Exhibition

All hung and the show is open - if you are in Bristol it would be so lovely if you popped in and had a coffee/beer with my lino prints...

The Tobacco Factory - Bristol

Lots of birds and animals, a few of Bristol and also some of my new botanical lino prints are there too, so a good old mix.

If you can't get to Bristol then Etsy  or Folksy are good places for a browse too!

Owl lino prints

I have been busy proofing a lino block of owls, drawn from the Natural Science collection at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.  They have an amazingly interesting and varied collection of specimens and it has been a real privilege to be allowed into the stores to draw them.

This block took a while to carve as I wanted to keep the 'drawn' feel of the original whilst turning it into a lino print - all the lines and no tone, a bit of a leap of faith that all the cutting out would pay off, but I am pleased with how it has come out.  Next stage is to print it in gold on lovely black Stonehenge paper which will change how it looks all over again...

Projects, lino cutting, print drawers

I've had a lovely couple of weeks lino cutting - a tricky map showing bird migration routes for a book, some more museum bird specimens and a couple of test blocks to try using with different inks. Ive been printing in copper and gold for a while, but really want to try out some different ink/paper combinations so I have been collecting papers ready - should be a fun experiment!

I've also had a great clear out/rummage through my print drawers, which meant I uncovered this little goat - one of my favourites.  It is definitely Spring Cleaning season around here.
My little goat lino print is hanging out in my Etsy shop if you want to pop over :)

Leeds Print Fair

I had a stand at Leeds Print Fair for the first time this month and it was really fab.  Very busy and lots of interest in my lino prints which was great - also time for an amazing pizza, a French film at the lovely Hyde Park Picture House and a pit stop in a great house filled with amazing children's art...yeah!

Everybody at the table - lino print frenzy!

Due to having a long list of other things to do I have managed to get quite a few new lino prints started this month...the other things can go away :)

This one is now proofed and ready to go - I've called it 'Everybody at the table' and especially enjoyed cutting out tiny little guinea pigs.  We don't always keep ours on the table.

Here is the print in my little Etsy shop if you want to take a look.

Insect lino prints...

A fun day printing lots of little insect prints :)  Are you feeling itchy?

Spring printing projects

I find the sunny, lighter days are perfect for a flurry of lino cutting activity...

In the past week I have lino cut the Teeny Tiny Bridge you can see in the photo, a flock of birds, an angry goose, an alien, a girl climbing over a mountain range and a herd of wild boar.

Next I need to print a whole lot of cards for our local arts trail in May, because that will be here in no time at all, lickety-split...

Little images in lino....

Lots of little images which I thought you could have a look at :)

Well, lino prints of course...

Happily printing a whole batch of new little lino prints, bursting with creatures and critters and birds and cats in both dresses and wigs...some dancing, some running and some completely still.

I'll let you see them all soon enough, when the ink is dry and the light is right.

(Isn't it great when you can announce to people that you are an actual real life professional vole printer!)

Hay on Wye made out of lino

It was that book festival thingy a couple of weeks ago, in Hay on Wye the town of books - I went, it was great and was mostly an ice cream festival as far as I remember, but I did make this little lino print of the town, with the amazing half derelict castle on the hill above...

Little Hay on Wye lino print is right here...

Leeds Print Festival 2015

Some of my lino prints are heading off to the Leeds Print Festival this week, including this huge flock  of swallows.   They are going to be at the Leeds Gallery, Munro House if you are near by.

It's taken me ages to get them all into their pyjamas, they are such a twittery, flittery lot but finally they are packed and ready to go, wearing a mixture of floral, stripes, pacman and some very trendy triangles.

Really excited to be following along after them, but I'll have to wait until the end of the month as the postman won't take me, and actually my pyjamas are a little shabby in comparison (hmm, should I wear my PJs to the Print Festival so that everyone knows that I belong to my work?  *wanders off pondering....*)

Pondering in the sunshine

Today I'm in the great position of having finished a couple of projects and having a little gap before the next, so I could draw and print anything I like!  Which means it's impossible to choose and so I am putting a picture on my blog instead...

I do really need to print a big batch of cards as stocks are rather low and I have got all the lino blocks out ready (see above picture), but the sun is out, the curtains blowing slightly in the (chilly) breeze, there is a space on my desk just large enough not to require any tidying - so it is a play around day, who knows what the results may be...

New A-Z animals print

Hello neglected blog - it's because I've been really busy, honest (and hibernating and adjusting to a new year and all those other winter time things).

I have been cutting away at lino blocks the whole time too, and I have really enjoyed making this print, a new animal alphabet - It's official title is:

 'Aardvarkbearcatdogeelfoxgoathedgehogiguanajellyfishlionmousenewtowlpigeonquailracoonslugtoadurchinvulturewolfxrayyellowhammerzebra'

and it is taking me quite a while to write the titles on the whole edition i can tell you....I am quite worried about spelling mistakes and missing out a whole entire animal, but, so far so good!

I am also trying to write the title at a jaunty angle to echo the circle of the print so that it looks fab when framed - it's a complicated business this being an artist thing.

When I have recovered from the whole editioning thing I will list the print in online places, but I'm going to have to shorten the title a little I think as search facilities don't seem to like 26 words joined together with no spaces, not sure why????

If you can't wait that long, and the nursery must have artwork NOW then leave me a comment or send me an email as there is always a way.....

See you on the other side...

Isn't it the greatest feeling, the switch over into holiday mode!

I've done it today (although I have a little more work to do, but I'm good at pretending) and suddenly I can ignore the blustery weather and list of things I could do to 'get ready' for Christmas and instead look forward to the company and outings and feasting and playing that's about to happen.

I'm most looking forward to dragging a pack of reluctant children out for a walk when they would rather be in with their new 'stuff', one of the little pleasures of being a grown-up, and knowing that they will enjoy it really, even though they pretend not too...and walking time is such valuable chatting time, so they must come along in order to let me know what is going on with youths these days.

Last year I got new lino tools for Christmas, will I be so lucky again?

I've had a perfectly busy lino print time this autumn, so thanks to everyone who has bought a print or attended a workshop and although I have developed a slight parcel tape allergy, I hope to do it all again next year.

Due to the amount of packaging and paperwork I've done recently I am also secretly hoping to get a bit of quality lino cutting time in over Christmas, but I'm not sure whether that is socially acceptable - I'll let you know how it goes in the New Year...and it's so nearly the year of the Horse, yipee...