Hearts

Today I've been printing lots of little hearts in red ink on various papers, ready to make into gift tags and notebook covers and other little things.


I find it quite therapeutic to print the same small design over and over again, several hundred times (at least, it feels like several hundred times for my fingers).

We're trying out some non-lino blocks like these ones from Lawrence (although we got ours from Norwich Art Supplies). They seem much harder to cut into than normal lino, and the cuttings don't ping off all over the place but need a sharp tug or cut to remove them, which makes for a tidier table, but is much less fun than seeing how far a gouge of lino can make it across the room...

In the meantime Jon has been building us a new computer, as our current one is sloooooow to the point of being next to useless at times. Hopefully this weekend we'll be up and running with the shiny new one!

Wool

Its been so dark and wet here today that I've been tempted to dig some of our winter woollies out of storage! Whilst we wait for the weather to improve I've been cutting some lino blocks for a new business card commission.


The cards will have a grey and pink ball of wool wrapping itself around the text. I've carved the two blocks (one for a pink layer, and one for the grey outline), and hopefully we'll get a few proof prints done this evening before embarking on a mammoth printing spree this weekend...

Sunny days

We have been enjoying some beautiful sunshine for the last few days - the garden is bursting with greenery! It's lovely to sit outside and have morning coffee, rather than staying indoors.

The lilac in the garden has bloomed, and smells wonderful. Tomorrow I'm going to pick some for the house. Well, actually Jon will pick them since it requires the use of a step ladder (I am not to be trusted...).

The postman has had some lovely things for us over the past couple of days -

Some pretty type from Devon (more to follow too - hooray!)...

And a box full of leather offcuts for bookmaking from the Midlands - lots of black, as well as dark brown, tan, cherry red, dark green and a nice foresty green, and navy blue! We're looking forward to making some new journals with it all over the next couple of weeks. Although the leather will probably be enough to keep us going for several months!

We've also been busy printing reduction lino cuts - they should be finished by tomorrow afternoon, so we'll post about them once they are finished.

In the meantime have a look at our Etsy treasury here. Jon's ordered his gown for graduation this week - he gets to wear a bonnet, no less.

Enjoy the sunshine!

Flowers and a new print

Last night I finished the flowers for Christine's flower project.

The rest of the flowers have been turned into pretty brooches! They were quite fiddly to attach to a brooch back, but they look great pinned on, and we'll be selling some of them on our stall at Clutter City this Saturday.

For Jon's birthday last week I gave him a little linocut of our house, which I've been beavering away on in secret since the end of July. It's hard enough not to let slip what his present is normally, but keeping a linocut a secret is hard! He kept wondering why there were ink splotches in the bathroom when he came home from work, even though I supposedly hadn't been doing any printing...

Here's the wood mounted lino block with the design all drawn and ready to go -


In progress (after being hidden in a drawer inbetween spells of working on it) -

And the finished print framed on the wall - twelve layers, about 6x4 inches, and about six weeks of skullduggery.

We will be at Clutter City again this Saturday - come and say hello if you're in Norwich!

Hello Duckie!

I've started clearing the first of the three lino blocks I mentioned in our last post. I've always wanted a set of ceramic flying ducks, but now I'm creating a set of three printed ones instead! This is the largest one - the other two smaller ones need to be cleared as well before I print the first layer. There's a long way to go yet!

I've signed up for an interesting project all about handmade flowers, thought up by Christine from Paper and Cloth. Each artist/crafty person involved makes several flowers which will then be sewn together to make one big piece of art. You can find out more about the project (and join in!) on her blog. I'm going to be making some printed paper flowers over the next few weeks - I just have to work out how they could be sewn onto fabric first. I think I might need to experiment with some prototypes!

Should Hello Duckie really be Hello Ducky? We couldn't decide...

Pika Package!

A few weeks ago I was the lucky winner of a Pika Package, and this morning it arrived from Pikaland! Full of lovely goodies from designers and illustrators from all over the place - all of which are brilliant! I'm so excited - I never win anything!

I'd thought I'd share a couple of my favourite things....

An original drawing on a page of Goethe by Susan Schwake.


A print by Iris Schwarz.


Another little print - by Nancy Mungcal (pretty little thieves)


And my absolute favourite - a Little Red Riding Hood set by Denise Ann Simon, including a Gocco print (above), bookplates (below), and bookmarks!


I have many other favourites too, naturally, and so does Jon! In the package were some adorable stickers from PhatSheep - I am now coveting the Fair Isle jumper tea towel in their Etsy shop.

Apologies for the slightly dodgy photos - it's wet, grey and miserable here today. Where has the summer gone?

We haven't been idle despite the horrid weather - these three lino blocks are almost ready to start cutting! They'll be turned into a set of identical prints in three different sizes, so they'll work together or individually. There is a lot of clearing to do before printing the first layer, which will keep me going through these wet afternoons!

Easter Tulips

Tulips, originally uploaded by spoonergregory.

The Easter weekend has been cold, wet and snowy so we have stayed inside and worked on some new prints.

Jon has finished a new black and white linocut of some tulips on our coffee table, surrounded by our new favourite mugs, a pile of books and our fruit bowl. Here he is quietly cutting out the tulip leaves whilst I was busy in the kitchen...

I have been working on a small multi-layered landscape print, which requires lots of slow, steady cutting and careful planning. I'm very pleased with how it is shaping up, and Jon thinks that its one of my best so far... Watch this space for the finished print!

The tulips print is now available from our Etsy shop!