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How I Make My Handmade Linocut Prints
Observation and Drawing
People often ask whether my prints are originals. The word print can suggest something reproduced, but a handmade linocut print is closer to drawing than duplication — each one begins with long observation.
Every image starts in a sketchbook.
I spend time watching a bird rather than simply recording it: the hunched stillness of a waiting heron, the quick sideways glance of a blackbird in a hedge, the particular way a robin stands its ground. Photographs help me remember, but drawing is how I understand. Through repeated sketches I learn the weight, balance and character of the animal until the image feels known rather than invented.
Carving the Linoblock
From these studies a final drawing is made and transferred in reverse onto a sheet of traditional grey lino — a natural material made from linseed oil and cork and used in traditional relief printmaking. I deliberately keep the drawing simple. The real description happens during carving.
Using hand gouges, I cut directly into the surface, allowing the marks to form feather, shadow and structure. The process is slow and absorbing; the bird gradually emerges as light carved areas contrast with the untouched surface that will hold ink. Because nothing can be undone, each decision matters. A single slip can change the entire print, which is why carving demands patience and attention.
Materials
I print using traditional grey lino, a natural material made from linseed oil, cork dust and jute backing. It responds beautifully to hand carving and allows the marks to remain clear and crisp over time.
Each impression is printed on archival printmaking paper, either Somerset Satin or Fabriano Rospina, chosen for its strength and softness under pressure. I use professional water-based inks, Caligo water-based ink, which gives a deep matte black while remaining stable and lightfast. I use Pfeil tools which are comfortable to hold and produce the finest lines.
These materials are important to me not only for their working qualities but because they ensure the finished print will endure — a handmade object intended to age gently rather than deteriorate.
Printing the Original Lino Block
Once complete, the lino block is inked by hand. The ink settles only on the uncut surface — a relief print — and the design becomes visible for the first time.
Paper is carefully laid over the block and passed through my press beneath woollen blankets. When the sheet is lifted, the image finally appears the right way round. Even after years of printmaking, that moment never loses its sense of discovery.
Every print is pulled individually from the same carved block, so each carries the small variations of a handmade process — pressure, ink and paper subtly differ — making every impression part of an original linocut print rather than a mechanical copy.
Because each linocut is printed by hand from the original carved block, it is considered an original print rather than a reproduction.
