Emily Hancock is a printmaker from Derbyshire, UK, making linocut prints from her home studio. Her work is inspired by nature, the night sky, and many trips to Asia with her backpack. Emily has family roots in India and the time she has spent in this part of the world has had a big impact on her life – she enjoyed learning about the culture, spirituality, food, and natural landscapes of this region and often reflects on her experiences here during times of celebration and challenge.
Emily discovered linocutting whilst on maternity leave with her son a few years ago. Originally, she bought a starter kit for her partner as a present and then ended up trying it herself. She began sketching seasonal wildflowers as a way to ground herself and relax whilst adjusting to a different stage of life with a new baby. Foraging for flowers reconnected her with nature and she started to spend more time reflecting on the seasons, the moon, and our connection with the Earth. As Emily developed her printmaking skills, she began incorporating her experiences in Asia into her work – Dravidian temples, desert scenes, volcanoes, Buddhist prayer flags, and elephants, to name a few, started to feature in her prints.
The process of turning a sketch into a design onto lino, the carving process, the first inking, right through to pulling the first print are all stages that she finds grounding, forcing her to slow down in the busyness of life.
Once she has finalised a design, she transfers this onto the lino with tracing paper. Staining the lino with acrylic paint or ink before carving helps her to see her marks more clearly, and a Sharpie pen can bring out more detail on the lino before the first test print. This process can sometimes take considerable time and a test print may need a number of corrections before it can be developed into the final print.
Emily uses oil-based printing inks, which are better suited to her studio environment, which can become very warm in the summer. She also uses a Pooki Press on heavier papers, which has helped take a lot of the elbow grease out of printmaking! Her favourite papers are Fabriano Unica and Stonehenge but she also enjoys using lighter papers such as Lokta and using a baren to hand burnish. She finds that metallic inks can create a very different mood in a print and enjoys the variation that different ink and paper combinations can provide, from the same lino block. Emily also uses Swiss Pfeil tools to carve the lino and uses biodegradable, hessian backed lino. All of the packaging for her print orders is plastic free and recyclable.
This year, Emily has developed her skills in reduction printmaking. She initially created very colourful pieces and more recently has found a balance with her monochrome prints, focusing on a more blue, green, and grey colour palette. This coming year, Emily hopes to further explore the cultural diversity of her travels and our connection with the Earth. She is excited about what the coming year will bring and is looking forward to starting some new projects!
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