Visit to Edwina Ellis’ Studio

February was a bleak month for creativity, but March more than made up for it with my recent trip to the beautiful Welsh coast. My hosts, Paul Croft, Gini Wade and Edwina Ellis from the School of Art gave me lots of exciting new techniques and materials to play with and I came away after 7 days with a fresh sense of creativity having partied with the printmakers and with some new prints to boot.

The first day we visited Edwina in the remote Welsh hills to see her printmaking technique that she is developing for her phD. It was a simple yet stunning twist to the relief print, and the effects were very sophisticated.

Here are the effects that she achieves by inking up the block with a tint block (kissed onto the surface with the pressure of an albion press)

Look at the prints she gets, firstly from the block itself

Then also from the tint blocks with which she inked up the lino

Then it was our turn!

Obviously with the master touch of the professional you couldn’t go wrong!

This print has been inked with two tint blocks and embossed as well. Compare it to the way I would normally print it with selective wiping and re-inking with thin rollers.

Very different!