@pomeletterpress.bsky.social
#PrinterSolstice

As described this is my mostly carved green vinyl Lino block portrait of Bibha Chowdhuri. Her head and shoulders appear with carved area in lighter green. Across the bottom of the block Sandpakphu mountains appear. Behind here is a schematic of an extensive air shower with branching straight, wiggly and dotted lines indicating a cascade of high energy particles

Working on my next block for #PrinterSolstice for the prompt “even.” This is particle physicist Bibha Chowdhuri (1913-1991) known for her work on cosmic rays, which were the primary way physicists could study particle physics before particle accelerators. 🧪🐡👩🏾‍🔬 #histsci We know quarks have fractional

My linocut shows a Victorian woman in dress with apron and sleeves working at a table. She’s viewed from over her shoulder so you can only see her cheek and not her whole face. She has an open book in which she is writing. There is an air pump to one side and two large glass cylinders, each with two thermometers inside. She is printed in a gradient of pale blue at the bottom to bronze at the top on cream coloured washi paper. The numbered and signed print is titled “Eunice Newton Foote.”

My lino block print portrait for #PrinterSolstice prompt addition shows the amateur pioneering American scientist, inventor & women's rights advocate Eunice Newton Foote (1819-1888) 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬#histsci who did the earliest experiments to show the insulating effect of certain gases & correctly concluded 🧵

My carved green vinyl Lino block on a cutting mat shows a Victorian woman in dress with apron and sleeves working at a table. She’s viewed from over her shoulder so you can only see her cheek and not her whole face. She has an open book in which she is writing. There is an air pump to one side and two large glass cylinder, each with two thermometers inside.

This year’s #PrinterSolstice prompts are math themed, which seems perfect for my #womenInSTEM series. 🧪🐡 The first prompt, “addition” made me think of the greenhouse effect, excess additional atmospheric CO2 and the resulting excess terrestrial temperatures. It made me think of a scientist who has 🧵

The prompt list is typed in a rounded rectangle with block printed black on white patterned border. The text reads: Printer Solstice 2026-26 1. Addition Dec 21-27 2. Even Dec 28-Jan 3 3. One Jan 4-10 4. Subtraction Jan 11- 17 5. Odd Jan 18-24 6. Expression Jan 25-31 7. Division Feb 1-7 8. Two Feb 8-14 9. Volume Feb 15-21 10. Fraction Feb 22-28 11. Angle Mar 1-7 12. Multiplication Mar 8-20 Tag & add Collaborator @printersolstice @speedballart @flexcut_tools Hashtag: #printersolstice #printersolstice2526 Hosted by @follydomeprints @linocaveprints Sponsored by @speedballart @flexcut_tools

The #PrinterSolstice prompt list is out! I like to try and participate every year. The prompts are mathematical in flavour this year so I feel like it’s a cue to make more mathematician portraits….

But you can interpret the prompts however you want. Join in!

www.instagram.com/p/DSSTq8mgIu...

My linocut portrait of Claudine Picardet in late 17th century wig with ringlets and dress, holding a book behind a table with a collection of minerals and scientific glassware for chemistry experiments. The print on white Japanese paper is made in a gradient of pale purple at the top through magenta to rose-bronze at the bottom with the exception of the taps at the top of one of the vessels which are in bronze.

For #printerSolstice prompt oxygen: my #linocut of Claudine Picardet (1735-1820) #chemist, #mineralogist, meteorologist & perhaps most importantly, translator of latest science from Swedish, English, German, Italian & possibly Latin to French at the height of the chemical revolution. 🧵🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci

My mostly carved green vinyl Lino block of Claudine Picardet in last 17th century wig with ringlets and dress, holding a book behind a table with a collection of minerals and scientific glassware for chemistry experiments.

Working on my next #printerSolstice print for the prompt oxygen- another woman who was there and involved in the chemical revolution and development of the idea that burning might be due to an element that got named oxygen rather than a substance possessed by combustible things called phlogiston.
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Portrait of Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier at a table surrounded by glassware for chemistry. A vertical rectangular linocut print on cream coloured washi (posted as square with white around it to fill space) printed largely in silver to look like a tarot card with numeral ‘VI’ on top and words ‘L’AMOUREUX’ at the bottom. Her sash is pale blue. His vest is a flowered pattern on pale blue and his jacket is brown. Above them is a flaming lungs in pink, with red and blue blood vessels surrounded with dark orange flames.

Until I can catch up on #printerSolstice, a throwback which fits oxygen: 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci Antoine (1743-1794) & Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier (1758 – 1836) worked closely together modernizing & quantifying #chemistry & scientific method, recognized & named oxygen & hydrogen, explained role that oxygen 🧵

Printed in a gradient of dark blue-green at the bottom through dark blue to light blue at the top, this is my 9.25” x 12.5” portrait of Japanese geochemist in the lab adjusting a round bottomed flask with other posts and an array of chemical glassware in the foreground. In the background are carved ocean waves so the top looks like sky over wavy ocean.

For #printerSolstice prompt carbon: my #linocut portrait of Japanese #geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007) who created tools that allowed her to make 1st measurements of CO2 in seawater, raised alarm about nuclear fallout, tracing it in oceans & researched peaceful uses of nuclear👩🏻‍🔬🧪🐡 #histsci 🧵

Partially carved green vinyl linocut portrait of young Japanese woman geochemist Katsuko Saruhashi facing the viewer in a lab coat adjusting a round bottomed flask with other posts and array of chemical glassware in the foreground. There is a fine u-gauge with wood handle on top.

Working on my next #linocut for the #printerSolstice prompt carbon! A geochemist for my ongoing series of #womenInSTEM portraits.

Katsuko Saruhashi (1920-2007) made the first measurements of CO2 in seawater.

#printmaking #EarthScience ⚒️ #sciart 🧪

My 11” x 14” linocut portrait of Sophie Brahe, a Renaissance aristocrat in headgear, ruff, dark clothing with medallion on a wide band and a long scarf or other thin fabric draped over her shoulders with her hands folded in front of her and alchemical vessels, printed in dark bronze ink, on a bronze background. In green behind her head is a map of the gardens at Uranienborg, with her head at the centre of the diamond shaped pale green knot garden (geometric planned gardens). This is surrounded by an orchard in darker green with semicircle bump outs on each side of the diamond. The stars of Cassiopeia from De stelle nova are printed in gold on top of everything; there are stars across her chest and ruff and in the garden and the large supernova is above her head.

For #printersolstice prompt gold, my #linocut of Sophie Brahe (1556 or 1559-1643) 👩🏼‍🔬🔭🧪🐡 #histsci horticulturalist, astronomer, genealogist, & alchemist with the gardens at her brother astronomer Tycho Brahe’s Uraniborg estate, where she often assisted his research, alchemical tools & illustration of

My linocut portrait of Millie Dresselhaus in white sweater, red blazer, and C for carbon necklace, with the structure of a carbon nanotube behind her, in red, silver and black ink.

I still haven’t had much chance to carve this year, or catch up with the #Printersolstice prompts, so until I can, here’s a carbon-themed print from my portfolio: 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬🎢 #histsci Millie Dresselhaus (née Spiewak; November 11, 1930 – February 20, 2017). She was a professor of physics and 🧵

My linocut portrait ‘Mary the Jewess, Mother of Alchemy’ with 3 devices attributed to her: the bain-marie (essentially a double boiler, shown as a large round brick furnace complete with orange flames, water bath and vessels), the kerotakis (which allowed one to heat items while collecting vapors, shown as a diagram with tube, with orange flames, below a heated substance, grill and a dome on top) and the tribikos (a kind of alembic with three arms that was used to obtain substances purified by distillation, here like a smaller bain-marie complete with orange flames in furnace, heated vessel and 3 arms to 3 alembics). Mary herself is printed in a gradient of purple to bronze to purple (top to bottom) on ivory paper. She is a Hellenistic Jew, dressed in a draped Classical style dress and wears a veil over her long hair. Her clothing was the frescos of the Dura-Europos synagogue built in Syria in 244 CE.

I’m excited to join #printersolstice - the element themes are a great fit for science stories I want to tell. 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci But I have no time to carve now, so until I can catch up, here’s the earliest recorded #alchemist for “gold”: Mary the Jewess (aka Maria Hebraea, Miriam, or Maria Prophetissa).🧵

Here’s my linocut ornamental white and orange carp or koi fish against a blue watery background with a smattering of bubbles. The edition of prints are made on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper, 8” by 10” (20.3 cm by 25.4 cm).

December 1 already! For the first day of #ArtAdventCalendar, I am sharing the first print I made in 2024. I made this #linocut for the #PrinterSolstice prompt complementary! Orange and blue. An ornamental white and orange carp or koi fish.

#sciart #koi #carp #fish #SundayFishSketch

In this print is I have combined a cyanotype of a fern leaf on a vertical rectangle of Japanese paper on the left side, with a red gel print on top of the fern and yellow lino block print of a fractal Sierpiński triangle set at an angle overlapping the cyanotype, red dot and the white sheet on the right of the print.

Another 2024 print on the eve of #ArtAdventCalendar2024: I made this one a #PrinterSolstice prompt primary colours. I combined 3 print media for each of blue, red and yellow. This print is about how fractal patterns appear in nature. 🐡🧪🧮 I have combined a cyanotype of a fern leaf on Japanese paper,

So they can crawl around & feed on coral reefs without concern.

With their fuchsia, indigo and yellow colour scheme I made these prints originally for the #printerSolstice split complimentary colour scheme prompt. 🧵2/2

#linocut #printmaking

My frog crab (Ranina ranina) linocut print in orange and red on white washi paper, 8” x 8”. It’s viewed from above and has white spots and hairs.

The final #printerSolstice prompt is warm colours, so I made an animal in hues of orange & red. My hand-printed red frog crab (Ranina ranina), also known as a spanner crab or Huỳnh Đế crab, is hand-printed on Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. 🐡🧪🦀 This crab is found in tropical & subtropical 🧵1/n

A collection of linocut prints laid out to dry of red and orange frog crabs (Ranina ranina) viewed from above.

A phalanx of frog crabs in warm colours coming up for #printerSolstice

The final prompt is warm colours.

#linocut #printmaking 🧪🐡🦀

In this print is I have combined a cyanotype of a fern leaf on a vertical rectangle of Japanese paper on the left side, with a red gel print on top of the fern and yellow lino block print of a fractal Sierpiński triangle set at an angle overlapping the cyanotype, red dot and the white sheet on the right of the print.

For #PrinterSolstice prompt primary colours I combined 3 print media. 🐡🧮🧪 This print is about how fractal patterns appear in nature. I have combined a cyanotype of a fern leaf on Japanese paper, with a red gel print and yellow lino block print of a fractal Sierpiński triangle.
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My Lino block print of two ochre sea stars (one purple and one orange) on kelp (in khaki green) is printed on white washi paper with speckled bark inclusions.

The next prompt for #printerSolstice is Triadic Colours, like secondary colours.
My Lino block print of 2 Pisaster ochraceus, generally known as the purple sea star, ochre sea star, or ochre starfish, on a bed of kelp, is hand-printed on delicate white Japanese paper with bark inclusions. 🐡🧪🌿🧵1/

Abstract mono print made with 4” x 6” gel plate with cut paper stencil shapes including some lace like Japanese patterned tissue paper. Printed in overlapping layers in cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink.

Abstract mono print made with 4” x 6” gel plate with cut paper stencil shapes and monarch butterfly Lino block. Printed in overlapping layers in cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink, primarily magenta.

Abstract mono print made with 4” x 6” gel plate. Printed in overlapping layers in cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink, using yew and cedar branches.

Abstract mono print made with 4” x 6” gel plate with cut paper stencil shapes including some lace like Japanese patterned tissue paper and several hearts. Printed in overlapping layers in cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink.

Next up for #printerSolstice is CMYK so I got out my process cyan, magenta, yellow & black ink & started experimenting with the gel plate. The first is my favourite, made with cut paper stencils & patterned Japanese tissue paper. I also used some carved Lino blocks & plant materials on the others.

My linocut of Annie Jump Cannon shows her in a 3/4 profile view wearing a shirt with a lace collar and her hair up. She is printed in a gradient of violet at the bottom to green at the top, printed on white 11” x 14” paper. The background is printed in a gradient (left to right) of dark blue, light blue, yellow, pale yellow, pale orange, orange and red. The background block excludes her silhouette of shoulder and head with the exception of a smattering of small dots in a swath from upper left to lower right (which extends to white spots on the coloured background). Also along the bottom are a series of circles of decreasing size (left to right, blue through red) labelled O, B, A, F, G, K, M. There’s a axis line along the bottom with 6 tick marks. Vertically from top to bottom along the left side are 15-, 10-, 5-, 0, 5, 20, 15.

For #PrinterSolstice prompt spectrum: trailblazing American astronomer Annie Jump Cannon (1863 – 1941) 🐡🧪👩‍🔬🔭 #histsci #DisabledInSTEM with her stellar classification system which sorted stars based on spectral types, revealing their temperature from hot blue to cool red: O, B, A, F, G, K & M. 🧵1/

They are in their first state with coloured inks printed on white 11” x 14” paper in a gradient (left to right) of dark blue, light blue, yellow, pale yellow, pale orange, orange and red. There is a silhouette of shoulder and head left white with the exception of a smattering of small dots in a swath from upper left to lower right (which extends to white spots on the coloured background). Also along the bottom are a series of circles of decreasing size (left to right, blue through red) labelled O, B, A, F, G, K, M. There’s a axis line along the bottom with 6 tick marks. Vertically from top to bottom along the left side are 15-, 10-, 5-, 0, 5, 20, 15.

The next prompt for #printersolstice is spectrum so it was clear to me I should add another astronomer to my 👩🏼‍🔬 series. 🧪🐡🔭

Instead of the visual spectrum of light 🌈 the colours in this rainbow roll relate to temperature of stars. Astronomers will have guessed:

🧵1/2

My tiny linocut fuchsia flatworms on a white background. The animals are an amorphous wiggly oval shape, fuchsia with pale indigo blue dots in the centre, a ring of fuchsia without dots and some yellow orange on its circumference.

For the #printerSolstice prompt split complimentary I was reminded of an animal that has aposematic colours fuchsia, indigo & yellow. So I made some wee little prints of a strange & beautiful creature, the fuchsia flatworm (Pseudoceros ferrugineus) from the tropical Indo-Pacific. 🐡🧪 🧵

Three small Lino blocks with an awl and a carving knife on a cutting mat. The upper and lowest blocks are irregular organic shapes and the middle block looks like the exterior of such shapes. The upper block has many tiny round holes in it.

Working on a tiny print of a marine creature with a split complementary colour scheme for #printerSolstice (with #insertaninvert2024 in mind)

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Three heart cockles (Corculum cardissa) viewed from the side so they look like hearts, with their lined texture carved into a green vinyl Lino block. The block sits on a cutting mat with half inch grid.

Three heart cockles (Corculum cardissa) viewed from the side so they look like hearts, with their coloured texture carved on a Lino block. One is spotted. One has stripes. One has blobs around its circumference. There are words carved in reverse (You warm the cockles of my heart). The block sits on a cutting mat with half inch grid.

Working on my next print for #printerSolstice prompt monochromatic.

Making Valentines for the malacologist/beach comber in your life. 🐡 These are heart cockles! They will be in different tints of the same colour.

My Portuguese man o’ war linocut is printed in blues, turquoise, violet and pink on white 9.25” by 12.5” Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper. The float is above the water surface, the tentacles below.

For #PrinterSolstice prompt analogous colours I made linocut of a Portuguese Man o’ War floating at the surface of the sea. 🧪🐡 #invertebrates

These are beautiful but deadly creatures, also known as bluebottles, resemble jellyfish but are actually colonial organisms called siphonophores. 🧵1/

A photo of a grid of my 9.25” by 12.5” linocut prints on white Japanese paper printed in blue, turquoise and violet ink showing a Portuguese man o’ war floating at the ocean surface in cross section so you can see the float above water and various long tentacles below.

Working on my next #PrinterSolstice print for analogous colours - a Portuguese man o’ war in turquoise, blue & violet. 🐡🧪 A beautiful translucent, floating siphonophore, is neither a jellyfish nor in fact a single animal. It’s a colonial organism made up of genetically identical zooids 🧵1/2

My linocut portrait of Maude Delap printed in a gradient of dark green to dark blue ink. She is an Edwardian Irish woman in a dress with her hair pulled back seen in profile, surrounded by diagrams of the life stages of a blue jellyfish (Cyanea lamarkii): polyp, ephyrae and medusa. Polyp is tinted light blue and medusa has air transparent violet and blue.

For #PrinterSolstice prompt cool colours: My linocut of self-taught trail-blazing Irish marine biologist Maude Delap (1866 – 1953), 1st to successfully breed jellyfish in captivity & document their full lifecycle. 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci She is surrounded by blue jellyfish life stages (Cyanea lamarckii) 🧵1/n

A grid shot on an angle of drying 11” x 14” prints, each printed in a gradient of dark green to dark blue ink. They are linocut portraits of a Victorian Irish woman in a dress with her hair pulled back seen in profile, surrounded by diagrams of the life stages of a blue jellyfish: polyp, ephyrae and medusa.

Completing my next print for #PrinterSolstice cool colours prompt. 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci Made me think of self-taught Irish marine biologist Maude Delap. She was the first person to succeed in breeding jellyfish in captivity & 🧵1/2