These wood engraving tools date from my time in Norman Webster’s etching department at Leeds Polytechnic Department of Communication Design, 1970-1972.
In wood engraving, you use the end grain of a the wood, often box or pear. The leather cushion is for keeping the block steady as you cut away the areas that you don’t want to print with the graving tools. I bought myself a little sharpening wedge, but I have to admit that, fifty years later, I’ve yet to use it.
Skokholm, 1970
ALL FOOLS DAY
In the morning it snowed. I stayed indoors doing postcards in the early part of the morning. I went out along the North Coast watching the breakers. It started to hail and I came across the Goats. These are descendants of goats that were kept by the lighthouse men for fresh milk but now they are wild roaming round the island fending for themselves. They have long shaggy coats that blow around in the wind and long horns. They look rather like Maddox-Browns Scapegoat.
From my Skokholm Island Sketchbook, 1970