Thursday, September 25, 2008

Recent Work (4) Nelson

I recently completed a "Keepsake" to commemorate the 250th Anniversary of Horatio Nelson. This was a commission from The Kings Lynn Arts Centre.

The keepsake was engraved on a large block of English boxwood. The design has many elements, including Nelson's birthplace, Burnham Thorpe church, The arms of King's Lynn, A map showing the position of the Battle of Trafalgar and the columns at Trafalgar Square and Great Yarmouth.

These photographs show the progress of the engraving ("click" on the images to enlarge them).




Here is the partly engraved block with the original drawing that I worked from.


The finished block:


Part of the edition was printed for members of The 1805 Club. Those prints had additional text printed from a small second block. It is difficult to engrave small pieces of wood. An easy solution is to tape offcuts around the small block, making it easier to hold:



The finished block has been fixed to the bed of an Albion Handpress; ink has been rolled onto the block ready for printing.


I don't often appear in this blog.Here am I "pulling" an impression.



A scan of the finished engraving:
Finally... the keepsakes are printed, dried, trimmed, numbered and signed.... ready for delivery. They will be sold at an extremely modest cost at the Fermoy Gallery of the Kings Lynn Arts centre. the exhibition runs from 27th September until 1st November.


As a bonus, here is a short film explaining how I went about engraving the small second block:


2 comments:

Annie B said...

Andy, you did a map! :)
This is a beautiful piece. Sometimes I have to draw buildings for commissions and I can't manage anything remotely as beautiful as what you've done here. I like the two figures at the top corners.

d. moll, l.ac. said...

Gorgeous! This little print must have knocked the socks off the 1805ers.