Getting ready...

This week we have been busy getting ready for the Pick 'N' Mix Makers Market in Holt this Saturday. We're really looking forward to it, and have got all sorts of new printed goodies for our stall.

Here's a peek into a box of books and other little things all packed up and ready to go -

We've also been printing new notebook covers on the Adana - my new favourite thing is bright orange paper...


And we've got a few new prints as well, including a new engraving by Jon using this lovely dark blue ink -


There are going to be lots of other lovely handmade, vintage and edible treats on offer - so we'll hope to see some of you there on Saturday, from 10am to 4pm in St Andrew's Church Hall, Holt.

The winners of the Folksy and Sue Ryder Upcycle competition have been announced! You can read all about the winners on the Folksy blog, and all the entries are now up for auction on ebay (100% of the winning bid will be donated to Sue Ryder). You can bid for our upcycled black journal here, and we've got our eye on a few of the other entries too!

A smaller block

Spent the weekend finishing off a tiny engraving on an offcut of unidentified end-grain wood, possibly maple, part of the mixed bag we bought a few weeks ago. It felt strange to be engraving on wood at first, after weeks of plastic and resingrave, but it was nice not to have to worry about the surface chipping or lifting away!


The engraving was based on a sketch of fields around Edgefield, near Holt in north Norfolk, from a long walk we had last summer on the Holt-Mannington trail. The simple patterns of hedges and plough furrows suited the small area of the block (about 5 x 3 cm). Printing was a bit hit and miss at first and we tried lots of different methods: laying the block on the paper (with padding underneath) and pressing down with weights, laying the paper on the block and burnishing by hand, and a combination of the two, although this generally meant the block would shift and blur the print as we flipped them. We spent large parts of Sunday night looking longingly at presses on the internet!


While I was engraving on Saturday afternoon Sarah took it upon herself to create a neater way for me to store my tools, which since I've bought them have lived variously in a roll of bubble wrap, in an old Stilton and Port tin, and scattered across the dining table. Now they have their very own little roll, courtesy of some old curtain fabric from Freecycle, and Sarah's 1950s sewing machine (a hefty lump of splendid engineering).

Holt. Who goes there?

We spent a lovely day pottering around in Holt last Friday after a week of working hard. Toyed with the idea of buying a Howard Phipps print ("Winklebury Hill Fort") in the Bircham Gallery but couldn't make our minds up so settled for the exhibition catalogue instead. We also bought a wonderful book of linocuts by Robert Gillmor, whose work we first noticed on the front of the Collins New Naturalist series. Much tea and cake was consumed amongst the sloping floors and ancient beams of Byfords, then a dark and windy trip back to Norwich.

We've also been stocking up on materials ready for a raft of new projects. Lots of new inks and several blocks of maple arrived from Lawrence last week, and we got a pack of tiny mixed endgrain woodblocks and our first sheets of Zerkall printing paper from Norwich Art Supplies, which is rapidly becoming our new favourite shop. Its a proper old fashioned art shop, filled with far too many things that we can't afford but still want to buy. Watch this space to see what we do with all our shiny new stuff!

Currently listening to: The Boy Least Likely To The Best Party Ever