Love, art and cinnamon hearts

Finding just the right Valentine's gift can be a challenge. I know I'm always trying to invent something new every year.

If you're seeking a one of a kind, hand-printed, colour-changing, thermochromic Valentine, or the chemistry of attraction in linocut form, or art for dog and cat lovers and more, I can help with that.

Apart from cinnamon hearts, I would definitely love a $500 Etsy shopping spree. Check out the #etsymatch question here, answer on twitter with the #etsymatch tag for a chance to win a $500 Etsy gift card.

And remember, I'm not kidding about the cinnamon hearts. You can send all you unwanted cinnamon hearts to me!

Did you say park?

I made a custom order pillow for the husband of a lovely customer, of their delightful looking dog. He really did appear to have the sweetest nature in all the photos. So, I wanted to use the block with the dog's portrait, and I could only imagine I'd captured that moment the dog heard the word, "park".

Lately, I've been printing second editions of popular prints, if I've run out of stock. Like my Vixen in the Snow, Aurora Borealis with the polar bear, and screech owl. Next, I plan some quail and maybe portraits of Minouette, herself.

Aquarius and JRT

The silver stars and silhouette of Aquarius the water bearer are illustrated in this handmade block print. The water flows right down to Piscis Austrinus, the fish. Parts of the constellations of Capricornus, Pisces and Sculptor and the dashed line of the ecliptic are also shown. If you imagined all celestial bodies we see in the night sky as mapped onto a sphere (the Celestial Sphere) around our Earth, the ecliptic would be the line you would draw to map the apparent path of the Sun through the various constellations. The word Aquarius and symbol ♒ appear at the top of the image. The lines linking the constellation appear in silver-on-blue or blue-on-silver as appropriate. There are a couple of bright galaxies or star clusters shown as circles. I printed an edition of eight prints, 9 inches by 7.5 inches (22.9 cm by 19 cm) on lovely, deep blue, handmade, Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper with silk fibres.

The Babylonians identified this constellation with their god Enki (or Ea). Enki was the deity of crafts (gašam); mischief; water, seawater, lakewater (a, aba, ab), intelligence (gestú, literally "ear") and creation (Nudimmud: nu, likeness, dim mud, make bear). As a marine geophysicist and a maker, this sounds like my sort of myth.

Also today, I printed a second edition of my portrait of Orbit, a.k.a. Lady Giggleswick (after receiving an anxious enquiry from that there would be a seconde édition, non?). Here she is, back by popular demand:

Lady Giggleswick Thinks of Love

Since, I've now given my xmas gift to Blythechild, I can share my latest print with you. It's a portrait of her JRT, Orbit, aka Lady Giggleswick. Shout out to Synap who secretly provided photographs, so I could get this portrait just right. Orbit is the sort of young lady who doesn't care that I tell her I'm a cat person. She simply, and amiably, curls up in my lap in a sunbeam, and I swear she purrs. I think she often thinks of love.



The print is in dark, dark brown ink and red ink on white, Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper, 9.5 inches by 12.5 inches (24.1 cm by 31.8 cm). It is one of a first edition of 8.