New website and blog

After nearly a year of procrastinating and dragging my feet I have finally finished my website and have a new blog over on Wordpress. 

Thanks for reading my posts here and I hope you follow me over to my new home: www.davidstelfox.com/blog

Polar bear in Christmas jumper card

My newest Christmas design is now available to buy from my Etsy shop:

Does it get better than a polar bear in a novelty jumper? I doubt it.

Another one to come very soon...

Double Negative Darkroom course

Wow, only just realised how long it has been since my last blog post! Time flies when you have a house to renovate. Printmaking has taken a bit of a back seat because we have not yet got our new studio properly set up yet (more of which to come...) but I am teeming with new ideas and cannot wait to get some ink to paper and show you the results.

In a slightly different vein last weekend I went on an introductory darkroom course at Double Negative Darkroom; just up the road from my new house. I have been interested in analogue photography for a while but haven't really looked into the processes that go from taking photos onto film to getting prints back from a print lab. The whole weekend was a blast, its was loads of fun and it was really good to get an understanding of how to make prints. Seb is a wicked teacher and spending time with other enthusiasts just makes me want to take and develop more photos. There is a real satisfaction is putting your own pictures onto paper. If you have never thought about doing a darkroom course or you are looking for the right one I cannot recommend this one highly enough. Below is a selection of the photos I developed (my page positioning needs some work!):

Cycling pinhole part 2

I have been continuing using a pinhole camera strapped to the front of my bike and below are some of the results. All processed by Seb at the Double Negative Darkroom in Hackney. 

Carlos Cortez

A long time ago I posted about revolutionary Mexican prints after an exhibition I had seen at the British Museum. Another artist I came across recently whose work was in a similar vein is Carlos Cortez. An active member of the International Workers of the World throughout his life, he published many of his woodcuts and linocuts in the IWW newspaper until it switched away from a relief press in the 1960s. He continued producing prints until his death in 2005. Beautiful stuff.

New print now available on my Etsy

Here is my new print, Grid Variations 1, which is now available on my Etsy here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/105540971/grid-variation-1-linocut-print

Irving Amen

Irving Amen was an American artist who worked in various mediums but his colourful woodcuts are particularly appealing to me. Check out a few of my favourites below and make sure you look at this website dedicated to his work: irvingamen.com

Pinhole + bike experiments

Recently I built a little rig for my pinhole camera so I could strap it to the handlebars of my bike. I then took some photos while cycling around London. Below are some of the results:

Sybil Andrews

I came across the work of Sybil Andrews (1898 - 1992) during a recent visit to the Tracey Emin exhibition at the Turner Contemporary in Margate when I picked up a card in the gift shop. I cannot believe I have been ignorant of her work for so long. Combining maybe my favourite movement in art, Modernism, with my favourite type of printing, linocuts, she produced breathtaking prints which have an intrinsic feeling of movement along with brilliantly simple cuts, shapes and colours.

                                                                            The Gale

Winch

Concert Hall

Matt Calderwood

Artist Matt Calderwood is perhaps best known for his Erwin Wurm-style sculptures which sit precariously, suspended by their own tension between two walls but he has also produced some great geometric prints; or at least I think they are prints. I can't find any more information on them other than the pictures below but I am sure you will agree that they bear all the hallmarks of block prints. However they are done they are made up of pleasing shapes and even more pleasing black colour. If anyone has any more information on these please drop me an email to let me know more.

I love Japan colouring book

I have blogged here before about a project I was involved in to produce a colouring book for children in Japan affected by the tsunami and its aftermath in 2011. Two thousand copies were produced with one thousand going to the children of Japan and one thousand being sold. The project involved twenty four artists from around the world all working in different mediums and the result was pretty awesome. More information can be found on their blog (http://japan-i-love.blogspot.co.uk/) or on their Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-lOVE-JAPAN/198978900141679)


I have a five copies to sell and have put together a little package which I hope will add a little extra incentive for you to purchase one. All the proceeds from selling these packs go to cover the costs of producing the book and hopefully producing another run so more can be sent to Japan.


Each pack costs £12 and includes:


- Your copy of the book
- An exclusive print I have produced especially for this (see below)
- A pin badge featuring one of my designs
- Postage


I can send this as a gift so if you know someone with kids with upcoming birthdays then I can wrap it and send it straight to them. 


If you're interested drop me an email at handprintedbydavid (at) gmail.com or contact me via Facebook or Twitter and we'll take it from there.


Here is a selection of the artwork included in the book:

Here is the book itself:

And here is the print which could also be yours:

Crosby, Ruthin and Prestatyn

We took a trip up north to visit my parents who live near Manchester as well as visiting a few art and craft places near there. We started out visiting the Antony Gormley installation 'Another Place' at Crosby beach. A series of his famous bronze sculptures based on his own body are situated across the beach stretching out to where the tide turns. Some of the sculptures are completely submerged by the tide and hence covered in barnacles and such. The foreboding weather coupled with Gormley's sculptures made for a good time.

The next day we made the trip across the border into north Wales to visit Ruthin Craft Centre where they are currently hosting a Japanese season. With exhibits ranging from textiles to ceramics to architecture there was loads of interesting stuff. The textiles by Reiko Sudo in the first gallery and a series of prints by Matthew Jones and Rhian Thomas really caught my eye. Simple, clean and beautiful. Will definitely be making the trip back for some of their upcoming exhibitions.

We drove the short distance to Prestatyn, a seaside resort which has definitely seen better times but still has a nice beach to walk on.

Recent work

Over the past few weeks I have been experimenting with larger scale prints and here are some of the outcomes:

I have also completed the following print which is now available to buy on my Etsy:

Ohh Deer Notebooks

I recently won a competition to have my one of my designs turned into notebooks for Ohh Deer, an online platform for illustrators and creatives. They have their products stocked in some of my favourite places including Magma and the Design Museum. Below is a picture of the notebooks and they are now available to buy here: http://ohhdeer.com/product/stuck-repeat-4