I’m extremely excited as I’ve just booked myself onto ‘Chinese Woodblock Printing’ , a 3-day course held at the Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh.

I love the immediacy of woodblock printing. The simplicity of using hand-held tools to interact with a beautiful, natural material, taking into account grain direction and characteristics makes it probably my favourite printmaking method.

The centuries-old process of Chinese woodblock printing is of major importance in the history of the development not only of art but essentially of the printed word. To use the traditional tools and materials while learning about the history and development of the process is going to be fantastic.

If you’d like a brief but fascinating insight, here is a video I’ve found: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y57rUeCHoXg