Netsuke Frog - Breaking The Silence

Mini woodblock print from my sketch of an antique Japanese netsuke frog (unsgd) at Bristol Museum.

“Breaking the silence

Of an ancient pond,

A frog jumped into water -

A deep resonance.

This poem was written by our master on a spring day. He was sitting in his riverside house in Edo, bending his ears to the soft cooing of a pigeon in the quiet rain. There was a mild wind in the air, and one or two petals of cherry blossom were falling gently to the ground. It was the kind of day you often have in late March - so perfect that you want it to last for ever. Now and then in the garden was heard the sound of frogs jumping into the water.”

From Matsuo Bashō - The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches. Translated from the Japanese by Nobuyuki Yuasa.

It has been a little quiet over here at Into The Wood so it’s lovely to be woken by the sound of Bashō’s frog and see this beautiful blossom on my journey home. 

Close to home and heart. Cherry plum blossoming in late March.

Books

The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches by Matsuo Bashō - Translated from the Japanese by Nobuyuki Yuasa

A Stomping Great Stamp

Rubber stamp prints by Dave, Liz and Jacquetta

Do you remember the first mark That You made? 

Mine was drawing on my bedroom wall when I was five. My mum was very generous and drew a square on the wall and said I could draw on the wall as long as it was inside that square. I was happy as long as I could keep on drawing.

Maybe yours was printing with potatoes. You sliced it in half, carved out a shape with a knife, dipped it in paint and printed it all over sheets of newsprint and maybe tried out a new pattern on the kitchen floor. Maybe you were four. Maybe ten. Maybe twenty. 

When I went to art college I just wanted to draw and paint. I wasn’t interested in printing. My first memory of printing was with potatoes. I was in my early thirties and then I tried printing with rubbers and then lino and then letterpress and woodblock printing and I fell completely in love with whole process of printmaking. 

We’ve all been making marks since the day we were born and if you can’t remember, it’s never too late to plant new memories.

Here are some rubber stamp prints made by Liz, Dave and Jacquetta who came to a recent rubber-stamp workshop at Salt cafe, Bristol. They really enjoyed having the time and space to have a stomping good stamp and no-one was under the age of thirty!

It’s never too late to make your mark  

Dave’s cross and circle stamps

Jacquetta’s house and multicolour chevron stamps 

Liz’s multicolour circle and square stamps

Potato Face by Mog

Spring Forward - Root & Rise

Website Refresh & Spring Clean

For the past month I've had the wonderful opportunity to been working with Nicky Spear and Sarah Preece from Root and Rise. Nicky and Sarah have been helping me kick start some new ideas for eightfivepress and make some changes to my website. After a few meetings we decided it needed a complete refresh. So...I'm really excited to be launching my new website during the Month of March just as the buds are blossoming and the daffodils are springing up their radiance. Please do have a look and let me know what you think. Hopefully you should find the site much easier to navigate and will be able to view my work too! 

Woodblock Mini Prints

I now have my very own online shop where you can purchase my mini woodblock prints of antique Japanese netsuke. To find out more about this project, you can follow the journey of my woodblock process at Into The Wood.

I hope you enjoy the new site! : ))

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woodblock | linocut | letterpress