Murreya paniculata, known as “Kemuning” in Indonesia. For me it is linked with very good memories of my childhood. The fragrance of this tree is incredible sweet and delicate. This photo was taken from a small shrub we had in New Zealand. It was too cold there to develop thegreen unripe and red coloured ripe berries.

I Made a sketch on tracing paper and included two berries. Hinged the traced sketch to the block with masking tape and transferred the image with the help of carbon paper. Re-enforced the image on the block with black ink. And cut. Absolutely no room for error. I yet had to buy some blue drawing ink in order to see where I was engraving, but meanwhile a coloured felt pen did the trick. As it was my first attempt at this technique I had another block by my side to practise the use of the various tools before cutting in the “good” block.

Using the leather sandbag and holding the block with my hand made me aware how sharp the tools are. With wood block carving and lino cutting you push away and are always behind the cutting edge.

I used a brass door knob to do the printing. It was printed on Somerset 300 grms cream paper. Wasn’t sure to leave it black and white or introduce some colour, so I used aquarelle paint to colour a few elements. The berries start out olive green, but when they ripen they turn to red. This experiment gave me enough confidence to try some more in the future.