Latest Linocut hand made card Hoel-y-Felin

Hoel y Felin

A 2 colour greetings card of Hoel-y-Felin Chapel in Trecynon. A6 in size and printed directly from the linocut block with letterpress type on the back.

Latest chapel card design

Hoel y Felin Trecynon

Reverse image of Hoel y Felin drawn onto linocut ready for carving.

The Skirrid

 The Skirrid from the Blorenge

Mixed media, watercolour, drawing ink, oil pastel on paper, about 8 x 5 inches

Above Abergavenny

Towards A40 and Raglan from the Blorenge with oil seed rape

Latest sketch

Old ash tree exploded by lightening near Lower Pen y Graig

An old ash tree split in 2 but still sending up new shoots.

Sketch book latest

St Elvan's Sketch

Mixed media sketch of St Elvan's tower and spire. Approx 8" x 5" on paper.

Chapel card designs

Cards drying

 

The text for the cards is typeset using lead type in a chase and then printed onto the card using either an Adana Five-Three or Adana Eight-Five table top platen press. The type for the rear of the cards is the same for the different designs and this is kept locked up in a spare chase. The text for the front is made up to suit each particular design so that small runs of up to 20 cards can be made. If a later run of cards is made there will be differences in the layout and appearance of the text.

The image for the front of the cards is made using linoleum. This is first drawn in pen, then copied onto tracing paper with a soft pencil. The reversed image is then rubbed onto the lino block. A border is made the same size as the card to ensure accurate registration. The image is drawn over in black ink so that it is clear which areas are to be carved away. The lino is carved using a fine gouge and craft knife so that it can be printed easily with as few marks as possible.

Once the lino is carved the image is tested on paper and then card to check for clarity and registration. The cards are produced by inking the lino with a roller and then placing the card carefully over the lino block. These are then placed under the middle of the nipping press and an appropriate pressure applied.

The ink used for the text and the relief printing is the same, in this case it is Caligo safe wash ink which produces consistent results and dries fairly quickly to produce an even sheen. The card is ready creased A6 card with a smooth white or cream finish. Once the ink has dried the cards are checked to ensure there are no nasty thumb prints or missing text and then packed in polycarbonate sleeves with brilliant white envelopes.

Linocut of Crickhowell

 Hanging up to dry - the latest building montage, this one of Crickhowell. Each is printed using Caligo ink (Made in Wales!) onto off white smooth 70lb paper. The image is printed from the lino block by hand using the back of a spoon as the image is too large to go in my nipping press.

Latest sketchbook

View towards Newport Docks from St Brides
 

The coast between Cardiff and Newport is a great place to go and sketch with its big sky and mix of wilderness and industry.

Aberdare Art

Bench patterns

As part of the printing heritage project in Aberdare; Sebastien Boyeson, the artist who designed the new benches and other features in the town centre gave a talk on how he came to produce the designs he did. Here are some of the patterns and samples he brought along. The bench supports, made from cast iron, actually represent individual cast sorts. The front is the type face. and the back represents the foot and groove of the sort. The rest of the benches are made from aluminium.

The theme for his artwork follows the brief to produce benches that would reflect the rich printing heritage of Aberdare.

Card designs

Square designs with words

The original card design with 4 linocut images has proved very popular and has sold well. However shops and some galleries aren't interested unless they can sell sets. So here are some ideas for wording with 2 different sizes of type but arranged slightly differently. The advantage of this is that the existing images can be printed without resizing or re shaping them as cards in the shops are gradually getting bigger.

Adana letterpress

Adan Five-Three

We recently aquired this small printing press on e bay to demonstrate how letterpress worked as part of the project Lucy is doing with the town heritage initiative and the history of printing in Aberdare.

We want to use it to make some invitation cards for the exhibition in the museum in February. As we have run out of time to buy suitable typefaces I made up some words out of lino which I set in the chase at the same height as the type. Its a great little machine and is ideal for invitation cards, business cards and greetings cards.

Aberdare Printing continued

Poster Ideas

 

One idea for the poster for the exhibition of printing in Aberdare is to use the masthead type faces as a form of typographic art. Here are some of the proofs hanging up to dry.

Aberdare Printing History

Linocut mast-heads and block type

 

Alongside the actual refurbishment of some of the buildings in Aberdare town centre, the Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI), partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), is celebrating the culture of the town through raising awareness of its history. One such area is the rich printing heritage of Aberdare especially in the mid to late nineteenth century. This was a time of great change not only in the developing technologies of the industrial revolution but also in the areas of religion,  politics and  social structures. Aberdare newspapers played an important role in this change as their readership included much of south and mid Wales.

As part of the THI programme, Lucy is working with a class in a local primary school to develop an art led project based around printmaking promoting Aberdare's printing heritage. I am supporting her by producing a number of educational aids including copies of old newspaper mastheads (made from lino) and large block type. The idea of the type is to show how letterpress was compiled before the days of computers, although these letters are also large enough to be used as stampers.

Once the work with the childeren is completed it will form part of an exhibition at Cynon Valley Museum in half term week.