❄ the more it snows ❄

As I type this, the snow is falling, those fat drifting flakes that float to earth. I really love the first snowfall, the soft padded silence that insulates my street and with the lack of traffic I could be anywhere, I could be in Narnia. Of course, by tomorrow the novelty will have worn off and the dog and I will have cabin fever and be ready to maim for fresh supplies.

This morning, I am off upstairs to my temporary letterpress studio to finish printing my Xmas cards...Using a very old Ajax press (which is a variation on an Adana) I am slowly learning his personality and his need for cajoling and fine adjustment. I have written off a fair few days on this Ajax beast but I have learned so much that I can't consider them wasted days but let's just say my achievements amounted to zero. It's always a hard fact that things don't always come easy or fall in your lap with such romantic outdated printing methods but the smell of ink and the tack of the rollers and the increasing pile of success is infinitely more satisfying than the whirr and click of a digital printer. Eventually, I become proficient and I get my rewards.

If you are a regular visitor to my blog and lover of handmade and hand printed then make sure you are following me and then drop me a message with your postal address and I'll send you a letterpress postcard. My way of saying thank you for sticking around when I am busy and don't get here so much.

◦◦◦ a break from August break ◦◦◦

Earlier in the summer I found myself in a meeting about funding for the arts, I always find it quite hard to absorb so much information and then have the wonder of what to do with it all. Meetings like this can be really great for meeting other creatives and I met Martin who was interested in my book making and he kindly commissioned me to make a limited edition of ten books. He had a friend who had sadly passed away and had left a little sheaf of pages of writing all about the building of a bicycle. Martin wanted to turn the flimsy pages into something more substantial but all on a budget. So we had a meeting and came to some decisions and the following images are what we came up with. The original pages were printed on what appeared to be a dot matrix printer in 1995. I didn't want to change the look of this at all as it had so obviously been designed by the author as he chose and to replicate these kinds of texts can be time consuming and costly. So, I scanned all the pages, with their creases and dust and reproduced them exactly.

Then I joined and collated all the spreads and sewed them up into the book blocks. This was then bound into plain white paper covered boards. I then took a selection of bike parts; a spanner, a few cogs, some bolts, a spoke etc... These were begged and borrowed from a bike shop and were rather greasy and black. For my plan they had to be absolutely clean, so I covered them in tomato ketchup over night and washed them in the morning which made them silver and shiny like new. A brilliant tip that worked beautifully. Mentally file it, it will serve you well.

Then I used my nipping press to deboss the bike parts into the cover.

It's not exactly easy trying to show you these white on white images. Imagine white velvety covers with very tactile shapes with every tiny detail pressed into the covers. They felt so crisp. I was very pleased with the result and so was my client Martin. I did an edition of 10 with 2 artist's proofs. Each book had a unique debossed cover and was numbered as an edition.

It was really nice to be able to help Martin achieve his dream of getting something nice done with his friend's work. And I should think somewhere his friend would be very touched too.

••♡ Fancy Nancy ♡••

Here are the finished lino prints from the tutorial. I cleaned up all the excess lino and got down to a production line of printing. I used my Adana press but you can just as well do the printing by hand. I used a pure Magenta ink and thoroughly enjoyed watching row upon row of postcards appear...

I went into production for a nice little job I had to do last week. To make and design press packs for Fancy Nancy, a gorgeous bakery that is doing a Christmas presentation at Harvey Nichols this week. 

Because this is how the world works. 

Whilst we are sweltering and dreaming of running naked in the surf, 
lots of designers/makers/businesses have to think about Christmas.
Anyway enough of the C-word.

It's more than a little hard. Hands up who remembers all that snow? 

A press pack is just some info for journos about a company or product. Usually quite dull affairs or needlessly expensive publications. I wanted to make a nice little presentation and Juliet of Fancy Nancy is just one of those gorgeous clients who leave it to me.

Here's a peep at the press packs I ended up making to be distributed to all the journalists to let them know all about Fancy Nancy. I made a rubber stamp of a cupcake and made all these bag toppers. Another production line developed and of course I had to leave them all spread out to dry.. it was a particularly windy week so I had to be really careful which doors and windows were open otherwise we could have ended up with cake stand postcards being stuck to cupcake toppers and that would have been VERY BAD. And with the windy weather I could not take anything outside to photograph in good old fashioned natural sunlight so forgive the crappy pics but at least you get to see some of what was created.

So, every press pack got a cakestand postcard, a little Fancy Nancy booklet with all the info inside with images etc. All designed by me. I'm loving the doily designs. It was lovely to work on a real girlie vibe with cakes and weddings and sugar coated possibilities. Here's the piles of booklets. Made from one page wonders...I'll have to show you how another time. 

Inside each pack was a little decorated printed biscuit beautifully made by Fancy Nancy. I developed a great sense of willpower and didn't eat one. It would have been so easy to pop one into my biscuit sized mouth too. 

And here are all the finished pieces with the early morning sun glinting off them as they waited delivery.

Like a row of party bags for grown ups. Now, there's an idea.

Fancy Nancy loved them...and I love them for letting me 'show and tell'

※ part three for your dear hearts ※

Some weeks it's like this in my head

fragile, fractured and foolish

And then it all leaps together like hares in the fields and I am done up again

Made again, right way upped and laughing high.

Making pictures, taking long looks and standing surrounded by air scribbling swallows.

I don't forget you of course and that we are on Part Three of Printmaking on Kitchen Tables, 

Garden Benches and even Ironing Board Studios.

I was fortunate and foresighted enough once to bid on a load of ink for 'small presses' on Ebay. I think it was about £2 for tubs and tubs of the stuff and the carriage cost me a lot more but here it sits in my studio gathering dust but never forgotten. A selection of colours too. I buy ink anywhere if it's a bargain. It seems to grow a skin and then beneath that waxy shell the ink stays perfect for years and years. I was tres lucky mon amies but you might too happen upon a delightful bargain. I probably strike fear into most printmaker's blackly beating hearts because I use all kinds of inks and mix them up a bit. It always seems ok. 
I am probably a printing pirate.
Ink supplies are available from 
http://www.lawrence.co.uk/
http://www.intaglioprintmaker.com/
and a recent find for me 
http://www.jacksonsart.co.uk
(they will deliver to Europe)
So, using a piece of glass, (mine is an old glass chopping board) or flat non-porous surface squeeze or scoop some ink onto your surface. I use old kitchen knives for this task; 
no need for spatulas or special tricks.
And begin to roll...you can use a cheap basic roller. But if you fancy this printing lark for more than five minutes, invest in something more charming, more seductive.

Spread your ink, smell that oily gloop and remember to come back to the moment.

Roll over your lino block in all directions to make sure you have inked up every little groove and turn.

Then carefully place a clean piece of scrap paper over your inked lino, use a lovely old spoon to burnish the back of the paper and transfer the inked design onto your paper. Try to use a regular circular motion and do it for quite a bit longer than you think you ought.
Keep the paper still.
You want a good strong deep print. 

Old spoons are best as you don't end up bending them under pressure.

And you know they don't make spoons like they used to.

Then carefully peel back your paper and admire your handy work. At this point you can note what may need tweaking, trimming or readdressing. I know I want to remove all the excess lino from around my design because I only want to cake stand on a white background. But this was just a test print to see where I was. It's easy to get lost.
Sometimes I think it might be easier to move into one of my best friend's gardens 
and live in her little caravan.
Just enough room to breathe.

↑ part deux (onwards & upwards) ↑

It has been the busiest week...I have been having a b-a-l-l

I think the sunshine brings out the best in me and everyone around me. I popped to London in the week and I could have sworn I was in a village, all good-natured banter and helpfulness. Chatty bus drivers? Whatever next?

I saw some brilliant work at my old college/uni/place of divine learning

The degree shows are here again and I love going back to my old London and checking out the action.

BA Photography at LCC at The University of the Arts was very visionary.

BA Book Arts in the same venue was, as always, thought provoking and I have seen the future of books!

{I'm not sure I understood it all but I got a momentary glimpse & a couple of Eureka moments}

BA Sound Arts debuted this year and I was blown off my plimsoles with it.

W.O.W

Kinetic sculptures & noise at unbelievable frightening, disturbing levels.

Freaking Amazing.

I was almost speechless if I could have heard myself think.
Head down to the Elephant & Castle for the action.

I'm almost pretty certain that the introduction of the odd French fried word in my vocab these days is down to the visitations of a certain Frencharian to my blog. Go see hers ici  It must really suck to live in France on croissants and romantic breathy films whilst being drunk on joie de vivre. 

Meanwhile back in lino cutting heaven, back to the ranch and we are debuting too. 
With the cutting.

The first cut is the deepest and all that

Bon Chance Mes Lovelies Bon Chance

Guiding your blades around your outline is a good way to establish the boundaries of your design. Think of it as carving a little moat. You'll revisit and add details later. Maybe even after a test print. You can always cut more away later but not add to it so take it easy with the process. It's so easy to carry on cutting because of the therapeutic and meditative qualities this process invokes. Reign it in mes enfants. Reign it in.

Cut and carve with your blades {a scalpel can be very useful at this stage} Some of the more fiddly details can 

be drawn with the blade and then lifted out with anything 'pokey'. I love my etching needle for this.

Remember the flat part of lino that you take away from your design will not print. 

I want all the 'holes' in my cakestand to be holes so I have very carefully and painstakingly removed them.

And I am still here. I didn't swear.

I made like a yogi printmaker and adored the fact that I was alive doing this.

Next time, which will be a lot sooner then this time I shall show you the inking and printing process.
Any questions? Post them as comments so everyone can see.