I’ve been overwhelmed with all the love I’ve received lately. I’ve worked really hard over the last few years, and it feels like the effort is finally paying off, and my dreams of being a full-time printmaker are a little bit closer!
There are nearly a thousand more of you lovely people following me, so I thought it best to reintroduce myself. My name is Oceana, and I live in North West London with my little Cavalier King Charles, called Blue.
When I was a young’un, I dreamt of being an artist, and I went to uni and completed a BA in Fine Art. After completing my BA, I had a crisis of confidence and stopped creating art entirely. I went on to have a wonderful career in curation for many years (after completing my MA in Museum and Gallery Studies).
After the pandemic, it was hard to pick up where I had left off. Then, by absolute chance, I bought myself a linoprinting kit one day (with the intent to make my father a birthday card), and I was hooked! Then I discovered embossing, and I’ve never looked back.
Today, I spend the majority of my time embossing, inking, and printing. Along with my dear friend @thewildprintstudio , I run a UK, London-based meet-up group for printmakers called the Ink Club.
My life has been entirely changed by printmaking, in the best way! I have made so many friends, had so many experiences, and I am just full of happiness that this is where I ended up on my journey. Thank you for following along with me, I appreciate you more than you know!
#linoprint #linoprinting #blindemboss #embossedprint #blindemboss
I’ve arrived back to London and am slowly easing my way back into printing – even just a week away from the press felt like too long!
While I get back into the swing of things I thought I’d share some of my older embossed prints. “Where the Nightingale Sings” is one of my favourites, oddly it didn’t get much interest when I first shared it, and I’ve only sent a few copies to new homes. Re-printing it again today for this little video made me remember how much I loved carving all the little details in it – the intricate little vines and tiny stars, they tug at my heartstrings.
I hope you enjoy 💗
✨ Instagram doesn’t really promote smaller accounts like mine that don’t already have hundreds of thousands of followers, so every share gives my work a huge boost. If you like this work, please consider sharing or using the repost feature or even just leaving a comment for the algorithm. As a small artist, that support is incredibly valuable and it helps new people discover my prints and truly means the world to me.
#linoprint #blindemboss #birdprint #nightingaleart #linoprinting
Pink skies and fluffy embossed clouds 💗☁️ inspired by @thewhitecrowe embossed cloud studies, she is a master of clouds and her work is enchanting.
This was my first proper attempt at trying to emboss a realistic looking cloud, and it was much harder than I had imagined it would be to create all the little creases and puffed up parts in the right places! I set the clouds against a pale pink and white gradient, which reminds me of the sky resting above the mountains of New Mexico. I’m a little sad that I won’t be visiting Galisteo again now that my mother has moved to Portugal, (something which I am very grateful for, given the current state of America) but I still have the memories of the mountains, and hundreds of photos of New Mexican sunsets and cloudy days high up at 7000ft (which I used as a reference for this piece).
💗 anyone who would like a copy of “Blush Skies”, the edition is available in my print shop👆 🤍
I created this print specifically for The Ink Club Mini Print exchange, which we are holding on the 25th of April, if you are a London/UK based printmaker, join us !
✨ Instagram doesn’t really promote smaller accounts like mine that don’t already have hundreds of thousands of followers, so every share gives my work a huge boost. If you like this work, please consider sharing or using the repost feature or even just leaving a comment for the algorithm. As a small artist, that support is incredibly valuable and it helps new people discover my prints and truly means the world to me.
#embossedprint #blindemboss #linoprinting #linoprint #skyprint
This weekend I have been playing around with monotypes. I went to the @londonoriginalprintfair at Somerset House last Thursday and saw so many incredible examples of the technique and felt inspired.
These are just my first attempts (I’m sure there will be many more to come), I’ve never actually tried the process before. I really wanted to find a way to pair painting with ink alongside embossing. I tried a few different methods, first with glass (which I ended up shattering because I forgot to cover it during the printing process) and then decided to move onto onto Japanese vinyl. #monotype #linoprint #embossedprint #blindembossing #contemporaryprint
Today I’m sharing an embossed print that I designed a few years back.
“Purgatorio” was based on a drawing I made in the early 2000s, just after finishing my fine art degree. At the time, I was obsessed with Dante’s “Divine Comedy” and spent days drawing Mount Purgatory and Dante’s journey through each terrace, including all the poor souls and their punishments, all the way up to the Earthly Paradise.
I later came across the drawing again and decided to translate it into an emboss. I had grand plans to emboss “Inferno” and “Paradiso” as well, but never quite got around to it.
It’s always an odd feeling looking back on past prints. I can see so many things I wish I could change, and all the areas where the technique could have been better.
✨ Instagram doesn’t really promote smaller accounts like mine that don’t already have hundreds of thousands of followers, so every share gives my work a huge boost. If you like this work, please consider sharing or using the repost feature or even just leaving a comment for the algorithm. As a small artist, that support is incredibly valuable and it helps new people discover my prints and truly means the world to me.
#blindembossing #embossedprint #linoprinting #linoprint
Join me as I test print this new emboss of birds in flight. Scroll 👉 through to see each step of the printing process, from damping the paper and inking to the final pull off the press
✨ Instagram doesn’t really promote smaller accounts like mine that don’t already have hundreds of thousands of followers, so every share gives my work a huge boost. If you like this work, please consider sharing or using the repost feature or even just leaving a comment for the algorithm.
❤️As a small artist, that support is incredibly valuable and it helps new people discover my prints and truly means the world to me. And if you’d like to see me more often, just push the bell icon (top right of my profile) and I’ll magically start appearing in your feed 🙏
#blindemboss #embossing #linoprint #birdprint linoprintin
Today marks a huge milestone for me 🎉 ten thousand of you lovely people are now following along on my printmaking journey!
When I decided to start posting here, I was just starting out with print and never dreamed this little venture would change my life so completely. Just a few years later, I’m sending my prints all over the world, building an amazing creative community, and discovering a whole new side of myself.
I’m so grateful to the incredible people who have shared my work and helped this little platform grow. Opportunities for independent artists can feel smaller than ever, handmade art is so often replaced with quicker, cheaper alternatives. But even as artists are squeezed, we won’t disappear. What we create comes from the heart, and that’s something no machine can replicate 💪.
Thank you all for being here with me, it means more than I can say 🙏.
… and if you’d like to keep seeing my posts in your feed, please do consider clicking the little 🔔 icon on the top right of my profile… I’ll magically appear more often 🙌
🚨Also… keep your eyes peeled 👀 i’ll be doing a giveaway in the coming weeks!
#embossedprint #blindnemboss #linoprint #whimsicalart #linoprinting
Next week I’ll be taking part in my first exhibition at the stunning Beckets Chapel in Wymondham, which was built 1174 and lovingly restored in 2022 (photo in the post). I’ve always been a little nervous to exhibit my embossed work, because the technique needs good lighting to bring out its raw beauty.
I love the fact that an embossed print can look one way in the morning, and completely different by the evening as the sun has moved, but as much as I love this, it comes with limitations. Beckets Chapel is filled with natural light, so when I was so graciously invited to take part by curator @ameliabowman , I jumped at the chance to be involved. A huge thank you to @ameliabowman who has worked so hard to put this together! Having spent my career in curation, I know that it can at times be a thankless task. So thank you Amelia!
In the meantime, I am spending a few days in Norwich with my father, enjoying his beautiful home and glorious garden. Our first day here Blue had a little accident and thought that the pond was solid (the surface was so filled with duckweed) and he fell straight in and I had to fish him out! But besides that little hiccup we have been having an amazing time in the sun.
💗if you know anyone who might be interested in the exhibition, please do consider reposing/ sharing this post. We would love to have as many people visit as possible.
The Details:
@wymondhamprintfestival
📍 2 Church Street, Wymondham, Norfolk, NR18 0OP (easy by train from Norwich)
📅 5-17 May 2026
⏰ Tues-Sun, 11-4
🆓 Free entry
♿️ Wheelchair friendly
#printmakingcommunity #blindembossing #linoprint #linoprinting #norfolkprint
Photo credit (beckets chapel) @historicnorflk
The last few days have been a whirlwind for me…
I’m heading up to Norfolk on Wednesday morning to participate in @wymondhamprintfestival for my first exhibition.
It feels a bit strange taking part in an exhibition, I’ve curated so many of them, but things feel more precious when it’s your own art that you are showing rather than someone else’s. I’m starting to feel the nerves, I think I have a huge case of imposter syndrome when it comes to my art and I’m always worrying that nothing will sell or people won’t “get” it.
I’ve also managed to leave everything to the last minute which is adding to the stress… between packing orders, printing and the ink club, the time flew by!
A huge thank you to everyone who came to our last meet up, I am continually astounded by our printmaking community, how wholesome and warm we are and how much we learn from each other.
Anyways, this is a little montage of some of the prints that I’m brining to @wymondhamprintfestival , I really wanted to post a photo of them today all framed and looking beautiful, but I ordered the wrong double sided tape and haven’t been able to put them together yet 🤦♀️
✨ Instagram doesn’t really promote smaller accounts like mine that don’t already have hundreds of thousands of followers, so every share gives my work a huge boost. If you like this work, please consider sharing or using the repost feature or even just leaving a comment for the algorithm 🙌 As a small artist, that support is incredibly valuable and it helps new people discover my prints and truly means the world to me. 🔔 and if you’d like to see me more often, just push the bell icon (top right of my profile) and I’ll magically start appearing in your feed 🤗
#linoprint #linoprinting #blindnemboss #embossedprint printmakingcommunity
Sometimes feeling like you have to post for the algorithm sucks.
I’ve been so busy today, whether it is ink club stuff or getting everything ready for my upcoming exhibition. Today I oiled up all my frames, packaged all my prints for the exchange and exhibition, wrote my bio for my exhibition cards, designed them and ordered them and somehow managed to take the dog out for a long walk 😅
So, I’m bringing you some pretty photos of my prints, which I don’t think I’ve shared before 🤍
#linoprinting #blindembossing #printmakersofinstagram #linoprinting #printmakingcommunity
This design was originally carved to be an ink-less embossed print, but when the edition came to an end I was drawn to make a new series with the block, but with colour.
I tried for days to get the colour right. I really wanted to create the illusion that there was almost no ink on the print at all, as if it were lightly painted with watercolour.
After lots of experimentation I found that by printing it once dry, and removing the majority of colour on the block, and then embossing it damp afterwards, I was left with a faint echo of colour.
I rolled the block with light powder blue on the sides and a thin strip of white in the middle, so that when the ink was removed, the middle section felt like there was nothing there but paper.
I feel like this piece encapsulates how far I’ve come in my practise. I’ve arrived at this place where I’m allowing myself to push my own boundaries. Instead of giving up when things didn’t automatically come out as I had hoped, I kept trying until I achieved what I had envisioned. Experimentation is such a joy!
✨ Instagram doesn’t really promote smaller accounts like mine that don’t already have hundreds of thousands of followers, so every share gives my work a huge boost. If you like this work, please consider sharing or using the repost feature or even just leaving a comment for the algorithm. As a small artist, that support is incredibly valuable and it helps new people discover my prints and truly means the world to me.
#blindembossing #linoprint #linoprinting #printmakingcommunity #printmakersofinstagram
Today I have been replenishing stock of “Cloud Study” (swipe to see the full process👉) as quite a number of these beauties sold over the last few days.
I’m so thankful for all the new orders I’ve been receiving, it really means a lot to me because I wouldn’t be able to continue printmaking if it weren’t for selling my prints. I still have to pinch myself now and then to believe my art is actually hanging in peoples houses!
All the funds I make are invested back into my printmaking endeavours. I set myself the goal ages ago that when I finally reached 10k here on Instagram I’d make my biggest investment, to move away from Etsy and create my own website to sell my prints. I’m finally having to think about it, because I only have 600 to go!
Etsy takes such a large commission from our sales, even from postage prices, and they never advertise your work properly unless you pay for ads (which is far too expensive for me). Everyone I’ve talked to says I should do it, but as much as I dislike the Etsy, I’m still a bit frightened to change over because the platform offers a degree of trust with it’s reviews and easy delivery tracking.
So, I’d absolutely love to get some advice from other printmakers (or any makers) out there who have made the jump from sites like Etsy to selling their work independently (and also from customers too!)
Did it make a big difference to your sales to change over to an independent site, and have your own site displayed on your Social Media instead of Etsy? What was the process like?
And for all you incredible print-loving customers out there, do you ever feel nervous to buy from independent sites, especially sites from creators who don’t already have an absolutely massive following online?
#printmakingcommunity #cloudprint #linoprinting #blindembossing #linoprint
