These coasters are printed using a hand press, similar in principle to the Adana letterpress, but without the circular platen and rollers which distributed the ink over it. Instead of ink a roll of foil is pulled over the electrically heated printing plate and the design is transferred to the coaster when the handle is depressed.

All of the designs are created in­house by a combination of hand and computer graphics and sent to a blockmaker who etches a printing block in metal. You can find information on creating Celtic Knotwork here, I prefer to start from scratch using vector graphics software on the computer.

Many people assume that Celtic art is the domain of the Irish, Scottish and Welsh but many of the intricate illuminated manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne Gospels were the work of Anglo­Saxon monks.

The designs for the Steam and Tractor coasters were created from high resolution digital images (photos by my husband more of which can be seen here).