Commission Handcrafted Print Blocks for Your Projects

Commission your own hand crafted print block, or bulk buy…

Perhaps you have a cherished fallen tree you want to ‘immortalise’? Your family’s hand prints? Something for your wedding stationary? Want to print on your own clothes? Some art?

I can help you create the necessary two-tone image / tracing for your project, and I can mediate, or you can create the artwork yourself, and contact Kishan Jain directly…

Santosh Kumar Jain
Wooden block maker and printer,
and the Queen of the Forest

I made contact with the late Santosh Kumar Jain of Jaipur for a commission, via the Indian Block Company in 2011. I wanted to create a souvenir for my family, at the Family Tree Party to close my tree climbing adventure.

Santosh produced the ‘Queen of the Forest’ masterpiece, based on my tracing of the Trafalgar Sq., Christmas tree rings of 2010 (Tree 187 of A.C.T. Norway spruce.) The design is carved into shesham, or Indian rose wood.

I sell prints using this block (available here), and sections are included in LTD Edition copies of A.C.T. (Full story of producing LTD Edition copies here).

Kishan Jain
Wooden block maker and printer,
and ‘Baby Family Tree, 59 days old’

In 89′, Santosh inherited the business from his father, who had opened the workshop in 65′. Now, Kishan (pictured) – the third generation Jain runs the workshop, since Santosh’ passing in 2021.

I placed a new commission for a block to end my project from Kishan’s workshop, ‘Baby Family Tree, 59 days old’. (The block maker was Sonu Kushwah, and it was finished by Kishan). The front and back covers of LTD Edition copies of A.C.T., contain prints using these blocks.

Chippa, wooden block carving in India – from the Hindi word chhapna; ‘to print’ – dates back to medieval times. Blocks are carved using wooden mallets, and metal chisels. Now, this beautiful craft faces the competition of mass production.

I’m so grateful to Santosh, and Kishan for their contribution to A.C.T., so I want to support their work.

Prints and LTD Edition books include royalties for the Jain family.

Door to a new life

My next collaboration with Kishan is to commemorate the first tree I climbed for A.C.T., a cherry plumb, growing in a Victoria Park, playground, Bristol. It had become host to a ganoderma sp. fungus, and had to be taken down in 2015.

I went looking for it to say hello, as I often do with ‘my’ trees, and eventually found only the stump. It’s always weird when they’re gone, but specially this one; the first door – the doorway to my adventure, and a new life.

The stump was scheduled to be ground out, but for some reason the work hadn’t been done. I had to salvage a piece of him/her which I did using a hand saw, by night.

The off-white area is the fungus, and the fruit of it is clearly seen on the outside. The empty space was the rotten core of the tree that had been occupied by ants. Yeah, I felt bad about sacking their empire for art, and sentimentality.