I now have the elements that I need to start composing my Thomas Tusser booklet.

• 12 point Garamond type… provided by Letterpress Works in Kent.
• 18 point Old English for titling.
• 12 point spaces and quads … provided by Happy Dragons Press  in Essex.
• Woodblocks, 13 in number, 12 for each month and one for a colophon.

I proofed the blocks last night and although one or two need some tweaks, on the whole I’m quite pleased with them. I still have to choose and order the paper, but I can get on with creating the forme.

A printmaker that I follow on Facebook, Laura Boswell,  recently put up a post that chimed with me at this precise time. She showed a picture of the cherry wood block that she’d worked and many people rightly commented that it was a work of art in its own right. I work with pearwood which has a lovely pink tone. At the time that my blocks print for the first time, I have very mixed feelings, because although I look forward to see the results of my print, I’m sad that the carving element and the colour is lost – not at the time of printing, as you can see in the picture, but when the blocks are cleaned afterwards, and turn black from the ink and solvent.