Welcome to my folksy shop ...
All of my artwork is hand-made and hand-printed / coloured onto artists quality printmaking paper
Orders will be posted by 2nd class Royal Mail within 3 days of order, and most likely the next day
Last order date for Christmas - Monday 16 December
My shop will be closed from Tuesday 17 - Thursday 26 December. Season's greetings to all ...

Original woodcuts & linocuts, coloured with artists watercolours

I'm Valerie, an artist printmaker based in the watery Fens, where the pace of life is slow and measured.

I went back into education as a mature student, having had enough of office politics ... I tried everything on a 2 year National Diploma course, and found that I loved printmaking the best so did a printmaking degree at the Cambridge School of Art.

My mother showed me how to do textile crafts - I enjoyed the process of creating something from start to finish, and it's the same with printmaking... my woodcuts and other prints are entirely handmade by me.

My inspiration comes from being a gardener for wildlife and an environmentalist, I look at insects, birds and plants during the changing seasons, and observe the interconnectedness of all things in the natural world ... the ecosystem.

I draw a design, reverse it onto wood or lino, cut it with specialist tools, then ink and print using a hand-operated press onto beautiful, heavy, quality printmaking paper, made of 50-100% cotton rag, hand-torn to give several deckle edges.
I then hand-colour some of my prints - it takes time to decide on colours, including the strength or weakness, then I carefully complete them - sometimes I feel something like a miniaturist.

The whole process takes a lot of time and thought, it can't be rushed ..

I especially love to see butterflies and moths when I'm out and I use butterfly-conservation.org to identify unusual ones so will donate 20% of the item price (excluding black&white woodcuts) to this worthwhile charity ... they are currently raising funds to create new urban wild spaces to help declining butterfly and moth populations.

Thank you for reading ... please look at any of my shop collections that appeal to you.

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