Handmade Linocut Prints and Etchings by
Sophie Brogden
About Me
Welcome to Fairlight Prints, a home Art studio that specializes in creating nature-inspired lino and etching prints, all handmade in a cabin at the bottom of my garden. My prints capture the beauty, life and movement of flowers and some reflect the daily joys of gardening and nature.
I'm Sophie, a printmaker and gardener. I have always loved gardening and am lucky enough to have had an allotment plot for 15 years. Through Spring, Summer and Autumn I photograph the huge variety of flowers and gardening scenes. I then create detailed sketchings from the flowers on the plot, in vases and from photographs.
A selection of my Linocut prints are in on show and on sale in
The Wisley Gallery, RHS Garden Wisley, GU23 6QB
Opening: Summer hours 9am-6pm daily.
I then transfer my designs to lino and spend many hours hand carving the lino with specialist tools until it is ready for printing. I use colourful water-based inks, a hand roller and a wooden hand press. My favourite part is the reveal, lifting the paper from the print.
I mainly use bamboo paper for sustainability and Fabriano paper. Heavier Somerset paper is used for etching prints as the paper needs to be soaked and dried before it is placed onto the prepared plate and rolled through the etching press.
Once a week I travel to North London to a specialist Art studio to create etchings and aquatints on zinc plates. A process which hasn't changed much since Rembrandt, a plate is carefully cleaned and prepared,
I draw onto the plate, etching through the 'ground' a layer on the plate, this is then placed in acid to allow a 'bite' into the metal. The etched lines then hold the ink which is applied, then damp paper is laid onto the plate and a hand powered etching press transfers the image to the paper.
A further process can also be applied, 'Aquatint' an intaglio printmaking technique, a process which produces tonal effect, the plate has a fine layer of powdered rosin applied and I paint directly onto the plate working in reverse working from light to dark to create a watercolour tonal effect. A time consuming but exciting process !
