Summer Flowers

I've been playing with drypoint printing the last few weeks with a (very gratefully) borrowed tabletop press. This design was engraved onto aluminium and then inked a la poupee using cotton buds to push black, brown, blue and yellow ink into the grooves.

I've really enjoyed working on this. It was MUCH harder to get the hang of it than I thought it would be, (things always are aren't they!) how long to soak the paper, how much ink was required, wiping the plate of excess ink without wiping off all the ink, and how much pressure to use, but I'm really pleased with the effect and I think inking this way gives a really romantic effect.

Here's some flowers from my sketchbook, I'm thinking about making them into screenprints but I'm wondering about adding some text and further colour so I'm still playing with them. I'm off for lunch with friends today, and then working on a commission about hosepipe bans this afternoon before Steve comes home for movie night and soup x