Species: Beetle Kill Ash
Latitude & Longitude: 31.6664 -94.3902
Press Date: Summer 2020
Dimensions: 18 w x 24 h inches
Materials: Strathmore 400 series 100 lb Archival paper and Speedball Black Ink
Style: Black ink on white paper. We do offer white ink on black paper HERE.
Limited Edition- 65 hand prints made
Description - Hand Pressed from a 65 year old Ash tree stump, fell in 2019 near Nacogdoches, TX due to an infestation of Emerald Beetles. This particular piece of wood was laying in a scrap pile at the local sawmill and we picked it up to reveal the story inside. Although it lived a long and healthy life providing food and shelter for 100’s of species of birds and arthropods, it’s fate is a glaring reminder of humans impact on the natural order of things. More info on this HERE.
Each tree ring print is prepared and printed by hand in a small limited edition based on the number of growth rings/years, in this case approx 65. The wood is prepared by first sanding, torching, dampening and repeating until the growth rings are raised enough to print. Tree growth rings are made of springwood and summerwood, hence the name. Springwood is softer than the summerwood, therefore when heated the differences in density creates ridges which are printable. Fun fact, the size gaps between the rings are also a direct correlation of how much rain was present that year.
We print each piece directly from the wood slab by hand, as you will sometimes see manual hand press marks on the back of the paper and some embossing.
Note: Each print is original and unique because of the subtle differences that hand printing creates.
Each print is signed by artist Ashley Brightwell, numbered, titled and include latitude/longitude coordinates of the tree’s origin.
