Journal
CREATIVE EXPLORATIONS
This recent short film (2m16s) shows the (speeded up) process of preparing, carving and printing a woodblock of the netsuke 'Fox or Tanuki Wrapped in Monk’s Robe’.
Music by Red Deer Sleeping
'Falling Through the Sunlight' from original poem 'September 1918' by Amy Lowell
Thanks to Kate Newnham at Bristol Museum for the time and space to draw Japanese netsuke.
In January 2015 I began a journey into woodblock printing, focusing on Japanese netsuke. In February 2015, alongside the netsuke animal print explorations, I made a woodblock print of a heron. See my Into The Wood project for more about this process. At the time I had no purpose for the heron, only to explore the woodblock process. It sat on the shelf for quite a few months until November 2015 when I decided to make my EP Heron Shade. It was the perfect image for the cover and so I decided to hand-print each EP with the heron woodblock. Here's a short film (1m 57s) showing snippets of the process and materials used to print the woodblock.
The song 'Orange' from Christina Rossetti's original poem 'Color' is the soundtrack for the film and also features on the EP.
The heron print on the front cover and disc label was hand-printed with Japanese carbon ink from a hand carved woodblock.
The back cover was typeset with 24pt Univers metal type printed with gold letterpress ink on the Adana 8 X 5 platen press.
Heron Shade title on the front cover was printed using blind deboss on the Adana 8 x 5.
I have made a limited edition of 100 EPs. Each cd is packaged in a 100% recycled card sleeve with a digitally printed insert on recycled paper.
If any of these self initiated creative explorations have made your heart sing please consider making a contribution. Your support will help me continue creating art and music to nourish the soul.
