Cutting out lino blocks

This week is a lino cutting week - a couple of commissions need doing ahead of birthdays and Christmas so These will be cut and hopefully printed by the end of the week. Obviously these are super top secret at the moment, but I am alos cutting out a companion piece for 'Woodland Glade' (above) which is for fun and will include at least as many leaves as this one... I draw the images in pencil first and it is very easy to get carried away with all of the lovely leaf shapes and woodland bits and pieces and then once the cutting starts it becomes very intricate and slow to carve! But the end result is definitely worth it - hopefully the new piece will work well...

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 :)

Printing 'Dungbeetle' in gold ink

This lino block of a Dungbeetle with its lovely ball of dung is one that I carved long ago and it has lived in a drawer for years - and then I had the idea to try it again with a bit of gold ink as I was printing some other gold prints...luckily it has survived well and printed perfectly still. Inked up it looks like an ancient relic to me with the gold. Plans now are to make an edition in gold, printed onto black Stonehenge paper and enjoy printing a lovely golden ball of poo!

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...

Song Thrushes and Tiny Birds - lino prints

Spring is in the air and so i have been making a few new lino prints - the mini-print is called 'Crowd of Tiny Birds' and it's slightly larger friend is 'Song Thrushes'. With all of the Spring activity, nest building, dawn sing songs etc it is hard to make lino prints of anything but birds at the moment and I usually only need the smallest of excuses anyway. Both of these new prints are now listed in my online shop here - and a few others are being carved at the moment too :)

Hedge - new lino print

'Hedge' is a new lino print that I carved during February 2021 - based on a smaller lino printed idea I had a while ago. The idea is to try and avoid a strong focal point and have an image filled with details, like a real hedgerow... Included in the carving are lots of typical Hedge plants and animals - Hawthorn, Blackberry, Cuckoo Pint, Elder etc and hopefully there are lots of little details to discover within the image. I have editioned it as a limited edition of 100 prints, hand burnished onto Somerset Satin paper and it is online here if you would like to take a look and see any more details about it.

New Lino Print - Otter Feast

A new lino print of a trio of hungry otters - well not that hungry as they have a pile of fish to eat. I have only ever seen an otter footprint, never a glimpse of the elusive creature although apparently they do live right here in waterways of Bristol, urban otters! This was a fun little lino print to carve, especially the little pile of fish bones - somehow the perfect subject matter for lino. I have added the Otter Feast to my online shop HERE if you are interested in any more info about it (size, paper etc) so pop over and have a look.