Apple Printing 

The earliest known mention of apples in England was by King Alfred in about 885 AD in his writings of “Gregory's Pastoral Care”. It's had its ups and downs since then, but one thing is for sure, the apple is quintessentially English. September and October are when the fruit trees are bursting with ripe fruit ready for harvesting. We've spent many a year at National trust properties enjoying the fun of picking, eating and bobbing apples at their apple festivals.

This year our own small apple tree produced a full harvest, which led to delicious apple cakes, decadent crumbles and the most tasty tart juice.

As some of the produce started to look a little sad, I wondered if I could use them to print with... My first attempt was just half the apple sponged with paint and printed on to card. It looked pretty but I thought it was missing out on one of its great features - its stalk. So I tried again, with the stalk incorporated, and I loved the simplicity of the design.

It was fun to try different sizes of apples, and I will try different varieties in the future. I'd be really interested to see the differences in the design. 

I found out along the way that sad apples make great prints, but squishy apples do not! The paint soaks into the flesh and the result is a mess, not a crisp print. 

I was really pleased that I had found a use for the apples that were going bad, and that it created something of a natural, crisp beauty. I used the design to make wrapping paper, notelets and cards. 

You can purchase notelets and cards made from my apple prints on etsy: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1808858871/note-cards-4-beautiful-individually-hand?etsrc=sdt