Reeds and Waves

Another weekend, another tiny woodblock engraved. This time a slightly less fiddly design than the Edgefield print, loosely based on many bracing walks by the sea in various parts of Norfolk, Devon and Cornwall. Its nowhere in particular, but there are elements of Cromer, Wells, St Ives, Penzance and even Plymouth in there somewhere! Again only 5 x 3cm. Will need to invest in a good magnifier if this keeps up...


Also finished is Fen Reeds, inspired by our post Christmas walk on Wicken Fen (or at least near Wicken Fen, what with us forgetting our NT cards and not being able to get in to the posh bit).


Our main website is due an overhaul to add all the new prints and generally tart things up a little, so do keep your eyes peeled for that over the coming weeks!

Currently listening to: The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

Friday night printing

Managed to finish off the house print this week after several trial printings and inking mishaps. The resingrave didn't take kindly to having large areas cleared away, but two evenings with the square scorper sorted it out. Looking forward to moving on to some maple blocks for the next engravings. Anyway, here's the final version of the print (now in black rather than green!). Speedball ink on Windsor and Newton 220gsm Smooth paper.



Currently listening to: Seu George, The Life Aquatic Sessions

Stuff we like to print with # 1

The first in a potentially very occassional series! Today, Speedball Block Printing Inks.


Oil-based inks are great, rich and dark and tacky and lovely to print with. However, when you're in a tiny house they're suddenly less good. Cleaning up is fairly nightmarish when you try to juggle an inking slab, rollers and pallette knives without covering the kitchen and bathroom in dark oily splodges, and it's quite a challenge to find space to leave prints drying for several days (our high tech solution was a bit of string tied between a curtain pole and a water pipe in the boxroom).

So, we now do nearly all our printing with water washable relief inks, and our current favourites are Speedball. They lack the sumptuous glossy sheen of oil inks, but its a fair trade off given that they are so easy to use. The colours mix well, they print nicely, and, best of all, cleaning up now takes minutes rather than days!