Pegs, pegs and more pegs

The first stage in my new reduction wood cut of three brightly coloured pegs.

I've printed all the peg shapes in orange, pink and blue - now I just need to add the metal hinge with the new silver printing ink. I made some notecards with the same peg block, and the silver ink works really well on them.

Sadly there's no sunshine in Norwich today, and it's too dark to take a proper photograph - I'll add some more when the prints themselves are finished and it's a sunny day!

This evening we are printing a commissioned bookplate on the Adana - Jon is sitting on the floor packing the chase with bits of wood as I type.

I'd better go and lend him a hand....

Stuff we like to print with #4

The fourth part in our erratic series of favourites. Today, some lovely end-grain wood blocks.

We have lots of blocks waiting to be engraved, in all shapes and sizes. Below is a random assortment of tiny blocks, never measuring more than 2 x 3 inches.


We also like to engrave on Resingrave, a synthetic material designed to imitate boxwood. I love the pristine white top layer before a block is engraved - always completely smooth and cool to the touch.


Next, a maple block. This one measures 3 x 5 inches, and is made up of several smaller blocks joined together.


Below is one of our precious boxwood blocks, from Chris Daunt, one of the last suppliers of handmade wood engraving blocks in the UK. If you ever hold a boxwood block in your hands then you'll know why it is such a highly prized wood. Boxwood feels completely different from any other wood, and the blocks are utterly beautiful in their own right, without any additions from us!


Below is a close-up of the grain of the same boxwood block.

One day we might just be able to bring ourselves to scratch its surface...

Cutting

This weekend we have both been doing lots of cutting!

We both find cutting to be quite therapeutic, especially with a glass (or two) of sherry and a favourite CD in the background. After a couple of weeks of day-job related upheaval we both needed to sit down quietly and do some cutting!

I have been working on a new wood block of a wooden peg which is now ready to print. I used one of my new tools, which was very pleasing to use and puts my old blunt ones to shame.

Here I am concentrating very hard on not cutting myself -


Jon has been busily engraving for a commission for a surprise present, so instead of a photo of his current block here is a photo of his magnifying glass. Useful for engraving and setting fire to small bits of paper when the sun is in the right place.

Crafty Synergy

We were recently 'interviewed' about our work for Crafty Synergy, a blog with a collection of interviews by different artists.


Our interview has just been published! You can read it here.

Hot Pink Ink

Today my new pink ink arrived in the post (along with a new silver ink, tools and more wood blocks), so tonight I experimented with a 1970s wedding block bought on ebay in a mad moment.

Tonight was only the second time we've used the Adana, and I managed it all by myself without too much interference from Jon, although I did need him to tighten the screws and take the photographs of course...


We still don't have any rollers, so I hand inked the block with our tiny roller instead. I think I'm getting the knack of how much pressure to use on the handle now, and it didn't take long to rattle a dozen notecards off whilst our pasta was cooking. It was such good fun I've decided to turn them into proper cards rather than just test cards, so I'm going to add some text this weekend in my new silver ink!

I think Jon is almost won over by the thought of bright pink ink, it certainly beats the boring tubes of black ink that came in the same order!

Finishing touches and a prototype

After letting the block sit on a shelf for a long time Jon has been busy adding some finishing touches to his wood engraving of St Winifred's Well (the Landmark Trust property that we stayed at in May), after a test print or two showed up some areas that needed more cutting.

We're going to print the newly cut block tonight on the press...

I have been busy making prototype wedding invitation cards using thin card and a square of thinner block printed paper. It took a couple of cards to get the folds quite right, but I'm really pleased with how they've turned out.

The final invitations are going to have a different patterned paper on them, and letterpressed text inside. Fingers crossed, they'll be ready to go out to our very small number guests at the end of next week... Hooray!

Tiny Little Cards

We have had a very busy few weeks, with not much time for printmaking, but this weekend we made time to make some tiny little notecards using this vintage printing block we bought in an auction several months ago.

We cut the full size prints from the block into small notecards - each one measures just 2.5 by 3.5 inches, and comes with a handmade envelope. Sets of five cards are available now in our Etsy shop.