Image: Adrian Moule
Tell me more about your craft?
What is it? When did you find out you were good at it?
I am a painter and printmaker and my crafts are Lino Cuts, Etchings and Mono Prints. The lino Cuts tend to use more formal drawing and the etchings get a little freer, whereas the monoprint tends to be quite abstract. I started printing formally around 2005 and by 2007 I was looking at developing the projects into a real craft, one that stands out and informs others to the idea of printmaking.
Why did you decide to turn into a business?
The quality that I look for in my business is engagement with the wider public, the finished print now is secondary to the engagement with an audience. Recently I was out on Pedlin Prints offering a free signed limited edition Lino Print to people who took the chance of inking it up themselves, this opens up an opportunity for a conversation and future development with the individual, for their time they get a fantastic print.
Image: Adrian Moule
Tell us more about the process, the step by step process of your craft-From the concept to the final product.
When I do choose to make work for my own development I will take a subject from anywhere otherwise I have to have a purpose for making work.
This full-colour lino is of some Tulips I bought for the studio, I started to paint them, they died and the painting is still unfinished but the print (below) is taken from the painting and I am playing with the forms and learning how to print each layer to make a striking print.
The print is a reduction Lino Cut, where the image is drawn and you choose the first colour usually the lightest, so in this print you can see I have printed the four colours that make up each flower and then started on the greens, I have in the image tried to show the last nine layers, the final print will have some blue at the top, so fourteen layers of colour each time taken through the printing press.
Before each colour is added you cut away from the lino the last colour printed, to clarify; if I want a leaf to be three shade of green I will print the first shade on the whole leaf and then cut away from the plate the area that I want to stay that colour. This print is 10 cm x 10cm.
Image: Adrian Moule
Where do you sell your product?
I usually have people come to me and buy, I don’t sell online, or in galleries, I have people who collect my work privately or commission me. Most of my income comes from my research practice where the craft of printmaking supports the findings of solutions or issues.
Have you noticed a rise in crafters and people buying creations?
Yes in some areas especially the fashionable drives around Make Do and Mend, Retro and Vintage, but then this also brought with it a type. People printing on maps, and pages of books, stamping and adoring things already made. There are some really great things out there. I prefer to challenge the medium, look to attain a level of understanding between me and what I am doing, rarely making a product.
What is the crafting industry like?
I am a participant of Teesside Print Group and others in the group are out there selling things at markets and in fairs and festivals. I think generally it is a competitive market and finding your Niche or in my case being content to follow a particular path is necessary, being different, and looking towards quality.
Do you recommend people starting up their own crafting creations and turning it into a business?
I believe we all have our own interests, following what we love doing motivates us in a way that nothing else can. This motivation helps us to be passionate about our activity, resilient and productive in whatever it is we choose.
Adrian Moule a democratic socially engaged community artist, painter, printmaker.
Here are his links:
https://www.facebook.com/adrian.moule.58
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Transitions17/posts/?ref=page_internal
Twitter @transitions_17
Gemma's Journey 