Over on Instagram Artist and maker Johanna Hawker organises March Meet The Maker every March. It’s a great way for makers to reflect on their business and practices, and a great way for people to discover and get to know the makers. I’ve compiled my posts into a little blog, so grab a cuppa and have a read about my Lino printing practice.

Introduction

Hello, I’m Catherine behind Cath Ward Prints. I’m a Lino print maker based in East Anglia, UK, living in the heart of Thetford Forest. I make original hand printed Lino prints, and greetings cards.

Nature and walks with our German Shepherd, Nala are a huge inspiration for my work. All of my Lino Prints start off as an idea in my sketchbook. Observational drawing and drawing on location is the foundation to my practice. It’s where I notice shapes, colour and texture, which i use to develop my lino prints. I love to work in a limited colour palette to heighten the mood and emotion of my illustrations.

I had a baby girl last year, so my practice has had to adapt around her. But I’ll share more about that in later prompts.

Style

I use traditional Lino printing techniques that are hand burnished in my home studio. I particularly enjoy using a multi layer jigsaw technique. This example used 2 layers, the first being the ‘jigsaw’ layer where shapes are inked up and put together like a puzzle. Then the key block layer with the illustration is printed on top of the colour, which brings everything together. I love to work in a limited colour palette to heighten the mood and emotion of the illustrations.

Decisions

Last year I had a beautiful baby girl, called Chloe, so my practice has had to adapt around her. My sketchbook work is currently working from photos at home, until I have the time and space to start drawing from observation again. I’ve been making repeat patterns, that started as a little project to decorate the Nursery, but I loved it so much, it’s become my maternity project. I’ve turned to children’s book end papers for inspiration. It’s been a great place to experiment with colour and composition.

Colour

I love working in a limited colour palette. Sometimes it’s using natural colours like greens and oranges, that I see in nature, and other times it’s opposite colours on the colour wheel. Whatever colours I use, I want them to help communicate an emotional tone to the print.

Aim

My aim for this year is to find my way with juggling a creative practice while being a Mumma too. It’s takes me about a month to get a print completed from start to finish. I have my sketch book next to be while I feed Chloe. I’m balancing the sketchbook on the sofa arm to sketch, then when I have some time to myself, I’ll scan those pages and make a template in photoshop. I have to wait until I have some windows of time to carve and print. Sometimes I can get 10 minutes to do these with Chloe in the baby carrier. I’ve had to change my mind set to working in 10 minute blocks when I have Chloe. Before Chloe I used to think I didn’t ‘have time’ to do anything if I didn’t have at least an hour, now 10 minutes feels like loads of time. I’ve been trying to be super organised, so if my partner can take Chloe on the weekends, I can prep and be ready for these 10 minute Windows.

Detail

With all my orders I put in a business card and use stickers to go on my prints and envelopes with my logo design on. I love using these because the logo is special to me. The goose is taken from my very first Lino print, the flying goose, that I’m packaging up here from my Folksy second sale last month. The goose came from a book idea I was developing while I studied on the CSACBI course

Workspace

I have a beautiful home studio in our conservatory. I love hearing the birds and seeing our dog play in the garden while I’m working. But since having Chloe, my bench hook has been my workspace! I’m working quite small so I can move about and work around Chloe. Sometimes it’s in my home studio, but other times it’s sitting at the kitchen table or on the sofa.

Where

I’m based in East Anglia, living in the heart of Thetford forest. A lot of my prints are inspired by walks around East Anglia, whether it’s in city’s like Norwich or Cambridge, or the forest or beaches in North Norfolk. And where You can find my prints are in my online Etsy and Folksy stores or in the beautiful gallery of Cambridge contemporary craft, in Cambridge city centre.

Favourite collection

My partner bought an old sailor boat back in 2019, and brought her back to life, she was called Tink! When we came out of the first lockdown in 2020, we got her on the water for the first time and spent a lovely summer social distancing and exploring the river Orwell in Suffolk. These nautical prints were inspired by a lovely couple of seasons on the water. My partner Wes kindly modelled for me, while I sketched him mooring the boat.

Product Story

Sometimes we used to ‘camp’ on our sailing boat, and one weekend a seal took a liking to our dinghy! We had a mooring out on the river Orwell and needed a dinghy to get to the mooring. This seal wanted to use our dinghy as a bed and started to climb into it! We were quite worried about loosing our only way back to land so we needed to shoo him away. Luckily he swam away, and we fell back to sleep. Fast forward to the morning, and we were woken to the sound of banging against the boat. Mr seal was back trying to climb into his comfy bed! Our dinghy survived and we got back to shore safely. This seal print above was inspired by mr seal.

Thank so much for reading, you can follow me on Instagram, where I share new work, and reels of my work in progress @cathwardprints.