Featured Maker // Fox & Fauna
Fox & Fauna - Sarah Rose
Illustrator & Printmaker
Sarah Rose is an illustrator and printmaker from Newcastle, now residing in Suffolk. She creates quirky and whimsical linoprints, giclee prints, cards and enamel pins under her small business, Fox and Fauna.
From a very young age, Sarah knew exactly what she wanted to be when she grew up. Her earliest memories are printing potato shapes, cutting out paper dolls and drawing clothes for them. This excitement for creating never left her and after following an art and design path from college to university, she dipped in and out of creative endeavours all through her twenties, eventually landing in linoprinting last year.
Sarah has worked for a stationery and homeware company as a designer for the last 7 years. However, due to COVID she was furloughed which left a creative itch that needed to be scratched. She had taken a linoprinting class earlier in the year and loved it so decided to explore it further. Fox and Fauna was born in July last year and Sarah runs this alongside her design job and looking after her little boy.
Sarah mainly creates linoprints which she finds an incredibly satisfying creative process. She works from a tiny room in her house which is half utility room half studio! Although she has plans to create a studio in her back garden, Sarah proves you don’t have to have a studio to create; she has found a way to make it work with the space she has and doesn’t let it get in the way of her creative endeavours.
Sarah tells us more about her processes, inspirations , what being a creative means to her and what exciting plans she has for the future.
Every maker has their favourite tools and techniques. Which are your favourites?
I mainly use a Japanese relief vinyl as my lino base as it cuts cleanly and neatly with no crumbling. My main go-tos for carving tools are my FlexCut Mini palm set and my fine detail Pfeil tools. I print with Speedball ink as it drys quickly, comes in beautiful bright colours and is easy to roll to the correct consistency. I then use my handpress from Woodzilla to print which gives a beautifully even, crisp print every time. I use several different papers, although more often than not I use Handprinted’s smooth, acid free Kent paper as it picks up detail beautifully.
Why is creativity important to you?
When I look at the times in my life I was most unhappy it definitely ties in to a lack of creativity or the opportunity to create. When I finally got a job working in design it helped satisfy this need to create but all the work I created was made digitally in Illustrator and Photoshop and over time I came to miss being a bit messy and hands on with my art. I also missed the freedom of creativity which is naturally limited when working for someone else and that’s how I came about wanting to try something new and signing up for a linoprinting class. Since doing this I feel more creatively satisfied and happier in general. I suffer with anxiety which I very much internalise and working on the soothing process of carving and printing is a brilliant remedy to calming my thoughts and focusing purely on the art of creating.
“...the soothing process of carving and printing is a brilliant remedy to calming my thoughts and focusing purely on the art of creating.”
Tell us about your inspirations
I am heavily influenced by kawaii style, which is the culture of ‘cuteness’ in Japan - think Hello Kitty and Pikachu. I love creating cute characters with this aesthetic and I like the simplicity and feelings of childhood nostalgia it invokes in me. It takes me back to going to the stationery shop when I was younger to spend my pocket money on novelty erasers, pencils and notebooks illustrated with cute characters which I treasured. I am still obsessed with cute stationery, washi tapes, notebooks and pens and I am working towards releasing my own stationery line which has been a lifelong dream.
Are there any particular artists or makers whose work you admire?
There are 2 printmakers who particularly inspire me - Molly Lemon whose wood engravings are just beautiful, full of detail and character and expertly carved. Rare Press is the other. I came across a video on instagram by Rare Press of the carving process that first got me interested in linoprinting. Her work is stunning, bold, clean and instantly recognisable.
What plans do you have for the future?
I am currently working on my first proper collection which is celestial themed. I have just started the linocut for this and have designs for greeting cards, foiled prints and an enamel pin. I am also looking into having my own washi tape, notebooks and desk pads printed. I am very keen to expand beyond prints and grow my business and see where it takes me.
Find and follow Fox & Fauna via their online shop and instagram:
@thefoxandfauna
www.etsy.com/shop/thefoxandfauna
