Christmas Cards

We bought some of those make-your-own card blanks and envelopes earlier in the year at a reduced price. So that pretty much decided I'd be printing our Christmas cards this year. My feeling was I'd have to come up with something suitably Goth, but still Christmas.

Seeing as I've lived most of my life in and around Coventry, and with City of Culture coming up in 2021, it didn't take me that long to think of the Coventry Carol. It reminds us that there are other children in this story, and it didn't end well for them. Makes me proud of Cov to come up with something so dark and so world class.

Anyway, here's my effort:

The black is lino, but I used a piece of plank for the blue, scrubbed with a wire brush to heighten the grain. First of all I printed it without any cutting of the plank, and played around with the paper copy, cutting out bits to work out how much of the plank I needed to cut away.

Here's another picture of printing in progress with completed cards hanging up to dry. That's home-made printing press number 1 in the corner. Number 2 is coming soon. Just watch this space.