Sea and Hill and Wood

Woodblock Prints

I am learning how to make woodblock prints. My guide here has been Rebecca Salter's wonderful book "Japanese Woodblock Printing". As ever I am experimenting with things around my home. The woodblock in the photo was sawn from the ash log you see, planed smooth and then carved using an approximation of the Japanese technique. I then hand print Japanese style, using handmade paper (bought!) and black ink made from charcoal from the autumn bonfire.

I have produced and printed several blocks so far. Ash, Cat, Sun, Moon was the first woodblock print I tried. It contains symbols of good luck - a black cat, an ash tree and an ash staff. The second is A Frog Jumped Into Water - inspired by the reflections of trees in water. More recently, I have made several leaf and cat blocks that can be arranged in a variety of ways. Examples are shown below.

Each is individually printed on either Kizuki or Kanoko Japanese papers with handmade black ink and/or watercolour paint and is available for sale (printed on approx A5 paper, prices range from £7.50-£20 + p&p; limited editions of 100; details on request to email address on home page). Ash, Cat, Sun, Moon is also available hand coloured on 225 gsm watercolour paper as a card (A6, £5 +p&p). A Frog Jumped Into Water can be bought plain, or decorated with Japanese Haiku poems.

Lampshades and tealights - a new take on A Frog Jumped into Water

Expanding my lampshade project with Li-Sheng Cheng, who is a skilled Caversham based artist and silversmith we have now moved into tealight shades as well. Our plan was to create a platform for our woodblock prints and calligraphy that would display the work to its best advantage in a useful setting. Pieces are now available for viewing and sale.

Here's the display from Henley Art Trail in 2013: lamp display

Here are two examples of our work:
1) the Frog Jumped into Water woodblock print on one face, with a haiku written in the Japanese on the opposite side;
2) using the forest floor motifs, the lampshade features leaves on one face and the cat woodblock print on the opposite face.

The frames are hardwood and the images are printed on handmade kizuki paper which is wonderfully translucent and diffuses light from low energy bulbs beautifully. All joints are handcut and finished and the lampshade comes with a custom made bag in natural calico.

Examples of my woodblock prints

On the forest floor

Ash, Cat, Sun, Moon

A Frog Jumped Into Water

Haiku texts available:

Breaking the silence
of an ancient pond
A frog jumped into water
A deep resonance.
BASHO

Was it a flower or a berry
that fell into the water
in the summer grove?
BUSON