Kate Lycett

Wood engravings are made by carving the end grain of a hard wood block, using small, chisel-like tools. Boxwood, lemonwood, pearwood and holly are most often used. It is a relief printing method, which means the areas cut away are the areas that do not print, so when you make an engraving you are essentially drawing with light. Lino cutting and wood block printing work the same way, but wood engraving allows for much finer detail because of the hard surface.

The Hebden Bridge A – Z

I began to engrave in May 2022 with Chris Daunt. I loved it straight away but the only way to get better at anything is to practice. In Hebden Bridge last summer, I gave someone directions to Regent Street and they made a throw away comment about needing a Hebden Bridge A-Z and I thought – why not?! If I have to do 26 blocks, I’ll have to get better. So I set myself some rules: I allowed myself only practice blocks so the cost and the scale didn’t intimidate me (practice blocks come as a set of random shapes in different woods, so I’d have to work with what I had). I wasn’t allowed to repeat a letter – once it was done I had to move on to the next one. Lastly, I didn’t have to tackle the letters in order, and I didn’t have to do an ‘X’ (In the end I cheated and re-did two letters, and decided that there had to be an ‘X’ after all).