About...

WELCOME to Arcady Printing where you will find stationery and household items handprinted using wooden Indian blocks with water-based, non-toxic paint.

You will find everything I have produced to date under the 'Shop' section - but if you see something you like but would prefer it 'tweaked', say in a different colour or on a different product item; please do get in touch as most things are possible and as everything is designed and printed by me I can be flexible!

I hope you find something you like, either for yourself or as a gift.  New items will continue to be added as I fall in love with new blocks and continue to add to my collection so do keep checking back!

Thank you for visiting Arcady Printing.

Claire x

THE HISTORY OF ARCADY PRINTING

'Arcady' : definition from Oxford Languages : has a literary meaning of "an ideal rustic paradise" which I felt suited the products I am creating.

The reason I chose this name goes a long way back to when I watched "Love on a Branch Line" which featured a fictitious 'Arcady Hall' set in Suffolk, owned by an eccentric father with three equally eccentric daughters and someone drew comparisons to my family as home was in Suffolk and I am the youngest of three daughters! 

At the time of watching I was living in a small flat in London, stuck behind a desk Monday to Friday, dreaming of escape.  I had just completed a floristry course and I thought I would move to the countryside; open a shop full of flowers, chalk painted furniture and other items I loved....and it would be called Arcady.

Fast forward 20+ years and I am back in the Suffolk countryside near where I grew up and in 2025 Arcady has become a reality but with a twist.... printing lots of flowers and other things I love!

But why Indian Block Printing? I have been searching for my "creative outlet" for decades to balance out being stuck in an office all day; trying everything from bread making, cake baking, calligraphy, floristy, jewellery making, knitting.... I tried it all but nothing ever stuck.... until March 2025, when a friend and I went to an 'Introduction to Indian Block Printing' morning with Emerald & Embers and over the coming weeks thought I might like to try it more.

I purchased some blocks and paints, found some blank cards that I had from years before (during another temporary creative phase!)... but then got the fear.  So I purchased the online Molly Mahon (the Queen of block printing!) course via Create Academy which gave me the confidence to actually put paint to block to paper as Molly says part of the joy of hand block printing is that the results are always different and "perfectly imperfect".  Finally I could let go of everything having to look perfect and precise; which is where I fell down on all my previous creative endeavours.

So here we are.... no two prints will be identical, no two products will be identical and these "imperfections" hopefully add to the charm and character of a handmade product; items that would fit in "an ideal rustic paradise"....

Claire x