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We are thrilled to see our new Winterbourne souvenir range hit our shop shelves! Last summer, we agreed that it was time for a refresh and that the new design needed to be special and unique; we needed to move away from more mainstream stylised ranges and back to the Arts and Crafts spirit at our roots.
We therefore approached Sarah Moss, our Artist in Residence from 2015, who produced the stunning monochrome linocuts that grace our house’s exhibition room (of which limited edition prints have been popular in the shop ever since!).
After an initial discussion, we sat down with Sarah to scour some of our favourite images that captured the spirit of Winterbourne. We needed to establish what the final artwork would be produced onto and look at how it would scale up or down. With an image selected for inspiration, Sarah set to work – and I’m sure you’ll agree that the finished print is beautiful.
We spoke to Sarah to find out a bit more about her process and how this new print came into being. Here’s what she had to say: “To recreate a colourful image of the Winterbourne gardens bursting with dahlias and cosmos in just black and white was a challenge. I had to try to represent the textures of flowers and shrubs, as well as the bricks and tiles of the house, using only mark-making.
“Linocut is all about the variety of cuts you make into the surface of the block, and the areas you leave uncut are just as important. The balance between light and dark is vital for the overall composition. If the balance isn’t right, then it can be difficult for the viewer to read the image. The foreground was left dark so that the lettering would stand out. Similarly, the sky was left with no detail to provide balance with the dark foreground and to allow the Illuminated ‘W’ logo in the right-hand corner to be clearly seen.
“Creating a sense of perspective is also not easy with this process. I tried to achieve this by having large, bold flowers in the foreground and gradually reducing the size of the flowers and leaves as they move back towards the house. This involved using smaller, more detailed marks to create the shrubs and trees in the background.
“It took about 30 hours to design, draw up and cut the block, but you are never quite sure exactly how a block is going to turn out until the first time you ink it up. It’s always my favourite part of the process when the image reveals itself for the first time.”
With a full range of items – including tote bags, pencils, notecards, and fridge magnets – boasting this gorgeous design, there’s something for everyone to enjoy as a little memento of Winterbourne.
