Hooksmith

02/09/2026

Fun weekend had Glasgow Mandolin Retreat , national piping centre. Thanks Ethan Setiawan Laura-Beth Salter/MacCrimmon for organising a first class weekend and to Cahalen, Pepi and Calum for imparting their exceptional skills and wisdom.
Couple of shots of Gotham City, Batman set in Glasgow CBD and random encounter with kiwi mates. Made it back for my daughters Birthday, sad to miss concert. Group photo Louise Bichan

29/08/2026

Type Archive Study Day, Science Museum Group, Wroughton.

15/08/2026

Too much heat in the kitchen. Thanks for documenting Nadia’s Plum Sauce Recipe Daniel Etherington goes equally well with a ploughman’s. Need rain

17/07/2026

The Great Unwashed. A long bike ride at short notice from Leytonstone into a head wind during a heatwave. A couple of days to the seaside…..alas, the tide was out when we arrived. Crossed many ditches in Fen country, saw a black squirrel and numerous muntjac, including one which looked to have just swum The Great Ouse. Earthworks at Castle Rising Castle impressive.

21/06/2026

A football commission underway this week using a fantastic large wooden block. Laying down some tester background. Could make A World Cup flag for Japan? Any ideas on age/type of ball appreciated.

24/05/2026

Such a treat seeing these guys play last night……WOW!

13/04/2026

‘Plein-Air, pink dress’ A lovely spring walk had and art homework completed with my daughter in Kent on the North Downs . Tracing a few family ties as we passed through the St Clere Estate, nestled in a sea of yellow rapeseed . Around 1950 my grandad Eddie was once head gardener here-his special charge was growing the vegetables. Couldn’t get that close to the walled garden, as the Estate is still in private ownership. Plenty of wild flowers and bluebells getting on with it in the nearby woodland and easy to see where my dad drew inspiration to study botany as his specialism and ultimately I guess influencing my own abridged career as a landscape architect. Orange tip butterflies and a small flock of nuthatches were highlights, though too quick for the camera. Funnily enough, I visited St Clere unintentionally for the first time last year when driving my father in law back to London from Maidstone and taking a wrong turn with his out of date TomTom….??

24/03/2026

21/03/2026

24/02/2026

Please Whis-per Quietly. A new print using an old ‘per’ sign sourced from Forest Gate, along with 16 Line Chromatic Woodtype made by Bonnewell&Co 16 Old Bailey London. The smaller 4 Line Tuscan shaded-outline at the top (‘please’) is by Caslon and a similar age mid 1850’s. Chromatic wood type represented the height of sophistication in printing at this time, whereby 2 passes through the press with separate colours(swapping out the corresponding paired-block), gave a resultant 3rd colour where the both the blocks and inks overlapped.