Histon Handmade Christmas

The jeweller Claire Howieson has assembled 16 amazing contemporary designers and makers for my next show this Saturday 26th November.

I have exhibited with many of them before and can't wait to see what the new venue looks like.

See Histon Handmade website for more details.

Ely Cathedral Food & Gift Fair 2016

You can't beat Ely Cathedral as a magical venue for a Christmas Fair.  This was my third time I have been lucky enough to be selected and I had a prime spot in the central octagon.  I am starting to get to know many of the the other exhibitors and it's always great to buy from their stalls too.

I bought this lovely cushion by Anna Osborne of Speculating Rook (birthday present to myself).

And this quirky chicken mug from Amanda MacPhail.  As well as sampling delicious things in the food marquee including several chocolate brownies and celery vodka blood Mary (much nicer than it sounds).

Fingers crossed I am invited back next year.

New products

I'm not sure if it's in a printmakers mind-set to want to see images produced multiple times, but I do like to see my original prints reproduced in other forms.  My range of coasters now extends to sixty-four designs.  I try to keep all the best sellers in stock on my website or etsy shop and the others are available on request.  'Winter Berries' is the newest to arrive.

I've also added this design to my range of cards and some have already been delivered to Wicken Fen National Trust shop.

I think these must take the prize for the brightest collection of coasters!  They feature my new Bike prints and I had great fun arranging them in a very pleasing circle.

Christmas Events

I've been busy the last few weeks sorting out Christmas orders for the shops and galleries I supply and making sure I have enough stock for my four forthcoming festive events.

See my Events page for all the details, but here is a handy list of dates for your diary:

Friday 18th - Saturday 19th November: Ely Cathedral Gift & Food Fair

Saturday 26th November: Histon Handmade

Friday 2nd - Saturday 3rd December: Cambridge Made Fair

Wednesday 7th - Friday 9th December: Winter Open Studios

Winter Berries

Winter Berries is a new drypoint print that I've had on the drawing board for a while.  It's one of my larger ones (31 x 23cm) so was a killer on the fingers scratching the lines into the perspex plate.  It's intended as a companion piece to 'Rich Pickings' which featured a male blackbird in a crab apple tree.

This shows a female blackbird in a hawthorn bush.  The berries have been individually printed by hand and the detail on the branches is watercolour.  It is from an edition of ten.  I am also having the design made into greetings cards and coasters.

Reflective Walk

One of my prints that sold at the Cambridge Original Printmakers show was this one, called 'Reflective Walk'. It's loosely based on the row of poplar trees that run alongside the lode near the Mill at Anglesey Abbey.  I often walk my dog there, after delivering stock to the National Trust shop and have always loved the reflections.

It's produced using a cardboard 'plate'.  The top half has the outline of the trees carved into it.  The reflection was made by cutting out the top layer of card to form the tree shapes.  I then applied glue to create the texture of the water.  Once the glue had hardened I inked-up the plate with oil based coloured printing inks, cleaned away the areas I wanted to be white, then placed the plate on my press.  I use 300gsm Somerset white paper, which is placed on top of the plate before beng rolled through my etching press.

Once the ink has tried I added watercolour to the trees to create a strong shadow.  The water is how it was printed.  It took several attempts to get the print how I wanted it as the first three came out too dark, so I had to wipe away more ink from the plate each time I inked it up.

I have also had the design made into cards and coasters.

Photos from the print show

The Cambridge Original Printmakers Biennale was a great success.

Core team: Anthony Hopkinson, Kate Heiss, Jo Tunmer, Sue Jones and Tracey Ashman

Huge thanks must go to the core team who spent the last 18 months pulling it all together.  Not an easy task with 39 printmakers to co-ordinate, two Print Houses, various talks and demonstrations and all the sponsors, website, brochures and advertising to sort out.  Well done guys.

Me hanging my work on Wednesday 21st September

I thought the standard of work this year was fantastic.  It was externally selected by Colin Wilkin, Véronique Chance, Elizabeth Armstrong and Jonas Almgren, the CEO of Artfinder.

Neil Bousfield talk

There were talks by some very interesting printmakers. The highlight for me being Angie Lewin talking about her inspiration, sketchbooks, printmaking techniques and branching into product design. I have since bought her new calendar for 2017

Angie Lewin

Personally the best thing about the show is talking to the other printmakers, finding out about their techniques and being inspired to try new things and generally up ones game!

Set of my new Bike prints

I sold really well, not just prints but also just over 200 cards!  So I'm afraid I went a bit mad and spent my profits on this fabulous carborundum drypoint called 'Landmarks' by Ross Loveday.

Can't wait for 2018....