#PrinterSolstice2526
LightNews LightNews
minouette.bsky.social
For #printerSolstice2526 prompt 2: my #linocut of trailblazing #microbiologist Esther Lederberg (née Zimmer, 1922-2007) 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci who made discoveries fundamental to modern understanding of bacterial gene regulation, recombination & exchange, but her work was both overshadowed by & sometimes 🧵
My lino block print shows a portrait of a woman in indigo, Esther Lederberg, with curly short hair in a 1940s hairdo, lab coat with collar and gloves, holding a Petri dish vertically in each hand in front of her. Each Petri dish in bronze has the same pattern of marks. She is surrounded by silvery green E. coli bacteria of exaggerated size, several which are being attacked by bacteriophages. Both lysis (phages reproducing inside cells, then exploding out of cells) and lysogeny (genetic material indicated by gold section of tangle of DNA is quietly integrated into that of the cell). The plasmid shown in some but not all E.coli alludes to the bacterial fertility factor F.
February 12, 2026 at 2:54 PM
minouette.bsky.social
Working on my next print for the #PrinterSolstice2526 prompt: two. I have a theme of replication and the place printmaking and science intersect for this one. 👩🏼‍🔬🧪🐡#histsci This microbiologist put her experience working in her father’s print shop in her youth to work, when she (and her more famous 🧵
My green Lino block in progress shows a partially carved portrait of a woman with curly short hair in a 1940s hairdo, shirt with collar and gloves, holding a Petri dish vertically in each hand in front of her. There’s a small carving gauge on my block.
February 10, 2026 at 2:29 PM
minouette.bsky.social
For #printerSolstice2526 prompt division here is my #linocut portrait of Agnes Pockels (1862-1935), the self-taught scientist who pioneered surface science. 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci

As a woman she did not get the chance to go to university & study physics like her theoretical physicist brother Friedrich, 🧵
My Lino block portrait of Agnes Pockels holding her pen and notebook by her trough (which was 70 cm by 5 cm and 2 cm deep, with a ruler along its length and a sliding divider). There is a button attached to an apothecary scale in the through so she can measure surface tension. She has her hair up and wears a dress and a cross on a necklace. She is surrounded by soap bubbles and you can see text in reverse for the Pockels point, 20 angstroms squared. She is in a gradient of dark forest green to lime from the base of the print upwards. The text, bubbles, and swirling patterns in the soap film in the front of her through are in pale pinkish purple.
February 5, 2026 at 2:24 PM
minouette.bsky.social
Working on my next print for #PrinterSolstice2526 - another scientist portrait for the prompt division. 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬🎢 #histsci I decided to interpret it like the ‘dividing line’ or interface and highlight the life and work of autodidact Agnes Pockels (1862-1935). Not allowed to attend university as a woman 🧵
My carved green vinyl Lino block portrait of Agnes Pockels holding her pen and notebook by her trough (which was 70 cm by 5 cm and 2 cm deep, with a ruler along its length and a sliding divider). There is a button attached to an apothecary scale in the through so she can measure surface tension. She has her hair up and wears a dress and a cross on a necklace. She is surrounded by soap bubbles and you can see text in reverse for the Pockels point, 20 angstroms.
February 4, 2026 at 1:40 PM
minouette.bsky.social
For #PrinterSolstice2526 prompt expression: my #linocut of Olga Ladyzhenskaya (1922-2004), 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬🎢🧮 #histsci a #mathematician who overcame personal tragedy, faced Soviet totalitarianism & the catastrophic political upheaval of the 20th century to make a huge impact on math, making important 🧵
My linocut shows a young Olga Ladyzhenskaya in profile, from the shoulders up in a gradient of navy blue at the bottom to pale burgundy at the top on cream coloured washi paper. She’s wearing a shirt and jacket with her hair up. She’s facing some text, carved in reverse, with some words in Russian and mathematics. The text explains this is the system of Navier-Stokes equation, initial and boundary conditions. Below her is a diagram of laminar flow eddying into turbulence. The text reads "систему уравнений Навье — Стокса" which means 'a system of Navier-Stokes equations' and also "для функций" which means 'for functions' and "при граничных и начальных условиях" which means 'under boundary and initial conditions'.
January 29, 2026 at 2:12 PM
minouette.bsky.social
The next #PrinterSolstice2526 prompt is expression so I am working on a portrait of one of the great 20th century mathematicians, Olga Ladyzhenskaya (1922-2004). 🧪😁👩🏼‍🔬🧮 #histsci She made immense contributions to the study of partial differential equations, particularly the Navier-Stokes equations 🧵
Green Lino block in progress is mostly carved and shows a young Olga Ladyzhenskaya in profile, from the shoulders up. She’s wearing a shirt and jacket with her hair up. She’s facing some text, carved in reverse, with some words in Russian and mathematics. The text explains this is the system of Navier-Stokes equation, initial and boundary conditions. Below her is a diagram of laminar flow eddying into turbulence.
January 27, 2026 at 2:41 PM
minouette.bsky.social
For the 5th prompt of #PrinterSolstice2526 odd: This is my 8” x 8” lino block print on delicate Japanese washi paper of a seven-spotted lady beetle, or ladybird or lady bug (Coccinella septempunctata) on a pink apple blossom. 🐡🧪🐞 Like most blossoms it has an odd number of leaves (5) and like some
My 8” x 8” linocut print shows a seven-spotted lady beetle in red and black with white on a pale pink apple blossom with yellow centre and darker pink outlines
January 22, 2026 at 12:37 PM
minouette.bsky.social
The 4th prompt for #PrinterSolstice2526 is subtraction so I thought of a scientist & talented writer who brought the world’s attention to what was missing. 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci After publishing the sea trilogy in the 40s & 50s, when marine biologist & conservationist Rachel Carson (1907-1964) published 🧵
My linocut portrait shows a short-haired woman (Rachel Carson, later in her life) looking over her shoulder at the viewer in this oval-shaped print on 9.25” x 12.5” cream coloured washi paper. Above and behind her are assorted birds, below is water, various fish, sea turtle, kelp and small sea life. She’s got a monarch butterfly on her shoulder. The print is in a gradient of purple at the bottom through turquoise to slate at the top. Sea life includes jumping salmon, shark, sea turtle, anemone, urchin, crab, shellfish and kelp. Bird life includes an osprey with a fish, a black skimmer, a peregrine falcon, a flock of Canada geese, an American robin, a chestnut-sided warbler and her favourite, a veery. Some animals are hand-tinted with gouache.
January 16, 2026 at 1:49 PM
minouette.bsky.social
Working on my next print for the #PrinterSolstice2526 prompt subtraction- a scientist who brought the world’s attention to what was missing where there had been indiscriminate pesticide use, & DDT in particular. 🧪🐡👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci Award-winning science writer & marine biologist Rachel Carson (1907-1964) 🧵
This is my Lino block in progress on a cutting mat next to two gauges. Lightly purple tinted so you can see what’s white and carved away, a short-haired woman (Rachel Carson, later in her life) looks over her shoulder at the viewer in this oval-shaped block. Above and behind her are assorted birds, below is water, various fish, sea turtle, kelp and small sea life.
January 14, 2026 at 2:06 PM
minouette.bsky.social
The 3rd prompt of #printerSolstice2526 is one so I made a #linocut of the 1st woman to earn a doctorate in science, physicist & professor Laura Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti (née, & known throughout her life as Bassi, 1711-1778). 🧪🐡🎢👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci I've shown her surrounded by the sort of state-of-the-art
My linocut on white Japanese paper shows 18th century woman (Laura Bassi) in dress with fur cape, and hair in ringlets with a hairpiece which echoes a laurel crown. She’s holding an open book with Newtonian optics diagrams and in front of her is an electrical machine (a stand with vertical large glass plate and hand crank and brass tubes to channel the large electrostatic charges it could generate through friction). She is surrounded by typical high tech lab equipment of her day like conductors, an aurora flask, a luminous discharge tube, a Lane electrometer, Leyden jars and Volta's electric pistol. It’s printed in a gradient of a hint of turquoise through violet to red-magenta to bronze from the bottom to the top.
January 8, 2026 at 1:38 PM
minouette.bsky.social
The next #printerSolstice2526 prompt is ‘one’ so I selected a woman who was often the first: first woman science doctorate, first woman physics professor and first woman member of a scientific academy, the Academy of Sciences at the University of Bologna: Laura Bassi (1711-1778). 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬#histsci
🧵
My carved Lino block on cutting mat shows 18th century woman (Laura Bassi) in dress with fur cape, and hair in ringlets with a hairpiece which echoes a laurel crown. She’s holding an open book with Newtonian optics diagrams and in front of her is an electrical machine (a stand with vertical large glass plate and hand crank and brass tubes to channel the large electrostatic charges it could generate through friction). She is surrounded by typical high tech lab equipment of her day like conductors, an aurora flask, a luminous discharge tube, a Lane electrometer, Leyden jars and Volta's electric pistol.
January 7, 2026 at 1:58 PM
minouette.bsky.social
For the #PrinterSolstice2526 prompt ‘even’ -the number of quarks in a meson, a type of particle first observed & published by Bibha Chowdhuri (1913-1991) & her supervisor D.M. Bose in extensive air showers from cosmic rays. 🐡🧪👩🏾‍🔬🎢 #histsci My portrait shows her, a mountain on which she gathered her 🧵
As described this is my linocut portrait of Bibha Chowdhuri, with a mountain range featuring Sandpakphu in front, sky with schematic of an extensive air shower behind her. She is a serious young Indian woman printed in purple ink with head and shoulders at a slight angle. The mountains are in a gradient of dark to light blue as we rise from the bottom of the page. The sky is a vivid gradient of colour like at dawn with a yellow umber through orange, pink, magenta and blue as it rises behind her and the mountains. Carved away in white is a near vertical line at the top branching repeatedly like a tree into straight, dashed and wiggly lines to indicate a particle cascade.
January 2, 2026 at 1:33 PM
minouette.bsky.social
The #PrinterSolstice prompt list is out! I like to try and participate every year. The prompts are mathematical in flavour this year so I feel like it’s a cue to make more mathematician portraits….

But you can interpret the prompts however you want. Join in!

www.instagram.com/p/DSSTq8mgIu...
The prompt list is typed in a rounded rectangle with block printed black on white patterned border. The text reads: Printer Solstice 2026-26 1. Addition Dec 21-27 2. Even Dec 28-Jan 3 3. One Jan 4-10 4. Subtraction Jan 11- 17 5. Odd Jan 18-24 6. Expression Jan 25-31 7. Division Feb 1-7 8. Two Feb 8-14 9. Volume Feb 15-21 10. Fraction Feb 22-28 11. Angle Mar 1-7 12. Multiplication Mar 8-20 Tag & add Collaborator @printersolstice @speedballart @flexcut_tools Hashtag: #printersolstice #printersolstice2526 Hosted by @follydomeprints @linocaveprints Sponsored by @speedballart @flexcut_tools
December 15, 2025 at 2:36 PM