Engraving, Printing, Drawing and Packing

This week has been a typical week of engraving, printing, drawing and packing. As usual, I am working on a series of bookplates but I took a break to work on a couple of illustrations. The first was of a waterfall - I will not show the whole image as it is a commercial commission but here is a detail:

The spray at the base of the falls was a challenge but I am happy with the way it turned out. I also worked on a smaller image of an oil jar from biblical times - the one that I sketched at the Fitzwilliam museum. Here is the boxwood block with the outline inked on - not a great photo, I'm afraid:
This was a bit of a struggle as the block did not cut well - Please note that this was not supplied by my blockmaker Chris Daunt. Luckily, it did print well and the illustrations were duly dispatched.

After printing the illustrations, I had some ink left on the slab and, since I had run out of my "thank you" slips, I printed some. Printing always surprises me. This little block is often awkward to print from but all of the impressions I took this time were fine. Have I shown you this? Some of you may have received them with orders. You can just make out Ely Cathedral on the horizon, between the "K" and "Y":

Drawing always features in my week. Over the last few days, I have worked on nudes with books, hares, Celtic knot work and a Russian tortoise:



Finally, the packing department has been busy. Here are a selection of garden and wildlife engravings, ready for packing:


Turn them over, and you casn see my newly created information sheet, with collaged business card:

J is visiting her sister this weekend so I am going to work through the weekend, catching up with some of my backlog of work.

Finally, my "blog" received its 10,000th visitor recently. I hope you continue to enjoy your visits to my studio.