The birds' wedding day

One of my aims for this year is to produce one of my small single colour linocut each month . . . I decided that the January print should be a 'Valentine's' design – last year's 'Love in the air' print was very popular (there are just 3 left) and so is the card.

I began  by doodling in my sketchbook . . .

 . . . using my fountain pen :-)

 

You see, I'd read about Poshyarns' Christmas present and scurried off to rummage in a drawer for my fountain pen – the one my parents bought for me when I went to secondary school (in the days when we had to write all our essays in ink with a proper pen). I remember choosing the brushed steel Parker 25, it looked very modern and space-age! Now it looks funky retro and I've discovered that people collect them. All those exam essays it got me through are water under the bridge, but now my Parker 25 has a new bottle of Quink blue-black and has a new lease of life!



The doodle which stood out as the one on which to base the new linocut was this one . . .

At this stage I switch to working digitally over a scan of the original sketch, in Photoshop I can work on different layers and add and take away elements quickly and easily. I decided that the two birds should be Mistle Thrushes because in our garden they are the first birds to choose a mate and build their nests – usually in the ancient Yew trees right outside my studio.

 

The design around the heart shape is made up of primroses, leaves and twigs in a texture which reminds me of Victorian paper lace Valentine's cards. When I was happy with the black line design, I printed it out to the size I needed on my laserprinter and transferred the design to the lino by painting paint-stripper on the reverse of the paper.

Then, my favourite bit, the carving. The design gets altered slightly a the cuts have a style of their own and give the finished block a unique look which is different from the drawn lines.

 

Ready to take a proof . . .

As you can see I work upside down at this stage. This is so that I can position the straight cut edge of the paper with the marks on the base board on which the the lino block is stuck; the natural deckle edge of the handmade paper is then at the bottom – which looks much nicer. (I think I got that tip from Annie.)

I like using Japanese printmaking paper, this one is very thin and useful for proofs as it's so easy to see how the image is printing as I burnish the reverse of the paper using various implements – my favourites this time were a tiny ceramic cylindrical pot and an antique nickle silver serving spoon.

This is the satisfying bit . . . ta-dah!

All looks good to go!

For the finished linocuts I used a slightly heavier and more textured Japanese paper which is made from Paper Mulberry fibre – I love it's crispness, like the pages of a very special old book.

I worked late to finish all the printing in one session, so this photo of the prints hanging up to dry was taken with the studio lights on.

 

The original limited edition unframed prints can be ordered by emailing studio@celiahart.co.uk
This is a edition of 30 prints on Japanese Kikuchi Haini Kozo Koban. The image size is 15 x 15cm. Each print is named, signed and numbered in pencil by me. An unframed print costs £48 (which includes p&p to addresses in the UK mainland).

Cards of the design are now available in Magic Cochin's Emporium.

For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
when every foul cometh ther to choose his mate 

From 'Parliament of Foules' by Geoffrey Chaucer 1343 – 1400

Celia

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