For Christmas my lovely husband gave me a mini etching press. The bed of this is 21x7.5 cm so very tiny!
The main idea in having one of these is to be able to take it to Norfolk and any other holiday places with me. I might also take it into the forest, but I'm still pondering what the benefit of this really is.
I decided to try to make a mini print every day during January and so far I've made a few:
I particularly like the more abstract ones. These felt like rather a cheat since they're far more about the chine collé than the ink, but actually I think there's something really interesting about them.
Later I realised that I had unconsciously selected paper on the same colours as I'm seeing in the forest at the moment - the grasses have become very pale and washed out, with the bracken being a darker brown when wet, but paler when dry. The deep greens are added by the evergreen pine and fir trees and holly. It seems pertinent now that I've realised my colour choices so I decided to continue with these abstract ideas.
I think that the textures I see in the barrel on tree trunks, footsteps in the mud, frozen puddles and all the other textural beauty of the forest could provide ample ideas for the ink layer.