The Collector's Edition of issue one has landed

It's a bit later than anticipated but we're delighted to tell you the Collector's Edition of issue is one is back from the printers, smelling beautifully fresh and inky

The Collector’s Edition is on sale now

We'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who donated to our crowdfunding campaign and helped us send our Collector's Edition to print. The journal is freshly back from the printers and we're sending out copies to those of you who pledged for an issue or pre-ordered through our store page.

It’s been a real joy to revisit our first edition; to think back to the time and thought we put into crafting the Ernest voice, indulging our curiosity and allowing our contributors the space to share their stories.

We’ve had to carefully consider where to update features. Many of the independent brands have gone on to thrive, while others have closed or changed gear – bespoke bicycle makers have become flower growers – and so we often suggest alternatives or ways you can follow the makers in their new endeavours.

We have also added two new stories. ‘A Perfect Clutch’ explores the meticulous research that goes into crafting replica bird eggs, while in ‘Ernest in the wild’, we ask contributors to share memories of journeys undertaken for the journal, from breaking bread at a Greenlandic kaffemik to floating with jellyfish in the Salish Sea.

The sense of community that has grown around Ernest over the past eight years is remarkable, and we continue to feel buoyed by your support and encouragement. Thank you for being part of our journey! We're so excited to share our Collector's Edition with you – let’s take a look at what’s inside…

Inventory

Nautical slang, anatomy of a storm kettle, the Mechanical Turk, how to cook meat underground, the real Moby Dick, a map of shipping regions, summer cocktails and a timeline of forks.

Nikola Tesla

Mark Blackmore dons rubber boots and enters the world of the Serbian super-scientist, with 700 patents to his name and the power to make electricity dance.

Ernest in the wild

To celebrate eight years of publishing Ernest, we asked contributors to share their memories of journeys undertaken for the journal, from breaking bread at a Greenlandic kaffemik to floating among thousands of jellyfish in the Salish Sea. 

Last & awl

Meet John Lobb, fourth generation crafter of bespoke shoes, guardian of Frank Sinatra’s wooden feet and boot maker to the future king.

Sea monsters of the northern seas

Duncan Haskell wakens the mythical beasts that slumber beneath our oceans, including an island that drags sailors to a watery grave and a creature that collects human bones in his beard.

A perfect clutch

Editor Jo Tinsley enters the studio of Tony Ladd to explore the research that goes into crafting replica bird eggs.

The Westfjords Watertrail

Follow a trail of thermal pools in the Westfjords – an ingenious project dreamt up by architects and philosophers – focusing on the repurposing local materials, supporting communities and embracing Iceland’s natural resources.

If you missed the opportunity to pick up a copy of the Collector's Edition of issue one in our crowdfunding campaign, you can now order a copy from our online store.

Issue 1 (Collector's Edition)

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Ernest in the Wild: the North York Moors

To celebrate eight years of publishing Ernest, we ask contributors to share their memories of journeys undertaken for the journal, from breaking bread at a Greenlandic kaffemik to floating with jellyfish in the Salish Sea. Here, writer Joly Braime reminisces on seeking moody landscapes in the misty North York Moors with photographer Daniel Alford for issue six.

Images by Daniel Alford

“This is like the barrow-wights scene out of The Lord of the Rings,” said Daniel with delight as we picked our way through Bronze Age burial mounds rising dimly out of the thick hill fog.

My first job for Ernest was a piece called ‘Yorkshire’s Last Vikings’ in December 2016. Art director Tina wanted to base the artwork around moody shots of the North York Moors, so landscape photographer (and Ernie regular) Daniel Alford gamely boarded a six-hour train from Cardiff with instructions to look for a bespectacled man and a small black poodle on the platform at Scarborough.

As luck would have it, my other article for issue six of Ernest had involved brewing 40 pints of 7.5% Burton ale, so we cracked open a bottle or two that evening as we sat by the fire at my cottage poring over OS maps, my dog snoozing disloyally in Daniel’s lap.

Our dawn shoot at Danby Beacon was wispy and atmospheric, but we spent the rest of the day in a proper pea-souper of a moorland fog. We inched my old Volvo blindly along single-track roads then ditched it in a lay-by and struck out on foot to seek out abandoned buildings, ancient burial sites and exposed ridges where we hoped we might catch the mist swirling in the dales below.

Daniel was the first of several remarkable photographers, illustrators and designers who’ve brought my words to life. There’s such pleasure in watching talented people pick up your ideas and run with them, and the article that lands on my doormat is always more than the sum of its parts.

You can read more of these stories in the Collector’s Edition of issue one, available to order now.

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Issue 11 has gone to print

We’re delighted to announce that our latest issue has gone to print, and for those of you that have pre-ordered or subscribed, you should receive your copy in around two weeks’ time. Thank you so much for your patience and for helping us to steer a course through these unsettled times. If you haven’t had a chance to pre-order issue 11, you can do so through our store page

Photo by Dan Alford

As many of you know, the past 18 months has been a challenging time for us. But after a remarkable crowdfunding campaign, we were able to send issue 10 to print last autumn – and we have been thoroughly heartened by your support ever since, including renewal of subscriptions and pre-orders for issue 11, which we've just sent to the printers!

Here’s what’s coming up in our latest edition, including healing waters in Iceland's Westfjords, memories of the Eiger, unearthing Old West landscapes in Europe, mudlarking on the Thames, a journey to the source of the River Teifi and a 'Russian spy whale'...

Inventory

William Smith’s geological maps; Steller’s sea cow; the history of lidos; photographing the fluid shapes of starling murmurations; 50 words for snow; the Quiet Parks Project; catching mackerel by handline; ramblers’ soap; natural inks; water monotypes; redesigning ghost wear.

Echoes of the Eiger

Revisiting his father’s pioneering route up the north face of the Eiger – famous for being one of the world’s hardest rock climbs – Mike MacEacheran ruminates on the power of memory and mountains, and why we push ourselves to the ends of the Earth in pursuit of the unknown.

A new era of biodesign

Our material consumption has long been out of control. But could developments in biodesign be part of the solution, bringing us closer to a 1960s sci-fi vision of a sustainable ‘Spaceship Earth’?

Nature & artifice

Ministry of Defence domes, tanks and radar towers may seem incongruous with the wild and craggy landscape of St Kilda, but as Bethany Rigby discovers, a military presence can often have beneficial consequences for conservation in remote areas.

Healing waters in the Westfjords

Henry Fletcher explores Iceland’s oldest geological outcrop – known for its runic sorcerers and herbalists, fathomless fjords and weather-beaten mountains, hot pools and cold water surf scene.

Wild West, Wild East

Trigger fingers at the ready, the sound of a whipcrack ringing in his ears, Nick Hunt seeks traces of the Old West in unlikely corners of Europe.

Technicolour scenes

Stanley Donwood is renowned for his Radiohead album covers and eerie drawings of sunken paths in Holloway (2013), but in his latest collection he turns to brash blocks of colour to evoke the rolling chalkscapes of southern England.

Meditations on the River Teifi

Jack Smylie Wild meanders to the source of Afon Teifi, weaving keen observation with childhood recollection, while sounding a clarion call to love and protect our waterways.

Oh hello, Hvaldimir

A cetacean spy or therapy whale? Joly Braime gets to know this big-hearted beluga who just wants to be friends with humans.

River of time

Mudlarking on the Thames: eroded by the ebb and flow of the tide, the crumbling banks of the estuary reveal clues to our evolving relationship with waste.

The humming towers

Pylons have radically transformed our landscapes for almost a century. Gareth E Rees explores the often-haunting symbolism of the metal monoliths that power our world.

On reflection

As flights were grounded and borders began to close with Britain’s first lockdown, Nicola Moyne found herself turning to the inky depths of the Suffolk coast for fresh perspective and purpose. She recounts how the River Orwell taught her to sail once lockdown eased – and reconnect with the wild.

Pre-order your copy of issue 11 below

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A pie glossary

From ‘gobbets’ to ‘coffins’, Steph Wetherell delves into the weird and wonderful history of the pie

Illustration by Sue Gent

bakemete (noun)
A Middle English word meaning, quite simply, a pie.

chewitts (noun)
A ‘one-bite’ pie common in the late medieval period.

coffin/coffyn (noun)
Original name for a pastry case, made into elaborate shapes and patterns.

forcemeat (noun)
Lean meat, such as veal, that was ground or chopped finely and mixed with fat then formed into balls and baked in a pie with sweetmeats or marrow.

gable (noun)
The raised and decorative edges to a pie, often visually representative of a local castle.

gobbet (noun)
A term referring to a piece of meat or flesh.

saucer pie (noun)
A thin pie made from leftovers, baked in a saucer.

umble pie (noun)
Filled with the minced or chopped innards of an animal (usually a deer), and the origin of the term ‘to eat humble pie’.

Words: Steph Wetherell; thelocavore.co.uk

You can read the full feature in issue 7 of Ernest Journal, currently on sale at 20% off along with our other back issues. Sale ends midnight 31 May.

Issue 7

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Meet the maker: Ruth Thorp

For issue 10 of Ernest Journal, we asked Ruth Thorp to illustrate our ‘Milk of Deer’ feature by Nick Hunt, which explores the reintroduction of reindeer to the Scottish Highlands. Ruth invites us into her Bath home and studio to tell us how lockdown has affected her creativity, and to share some insights for optimising her work and home space

Illustrated by Ruth Thorp

Ruth, you created these gorgeous illustrations for our 'Milk of Deer' feature in issue 10. Take us through your process.

I approach editorial commissions in much the same way I do my personal illustration collections, although of course the biggest difference is having a specific brief and piece of text to respond to. I don’t like to get too bogged down in details when responding to written work – find this can limit my creativity. I often find I have an immediate visual response for the feel and tone after the first reading, and I like to capture this before setting out the specifics. As this article featured the Cairngorms, a place I’ve not visited, I collated some visual research of the area to refer back to.

For the majority of my work I start with colour, and this was no exception. The colours of the Cairngorms are pretty spectacular, particularly when you zoom in on the lichen and stone, and the golden autumn hues of the forests, and so I used these grey-blues, golden and fiery oranges to create my colour palette.

I then set about plotting and drawing some basic shapes and composition for each of the three illustrations, which I worked on concurrently throughout the process. Once happy with the basic form, I then turned to pen and paper to draw the tree shapes and foliage. At this stage I’ll fill pages and pages with black pen drawings and then scan these in and convert them into vector objects so I can colour, compose, combine and edit them digitally. My work is always a mixture of these hand-drawn and digital elements. I tend to draw the more natural, free-form elements, such as the trees and foliage, by hand and the more precise work, such as the landforms, boat and animals, digitally.

I also combine these with photographic textures I have taken, such as slate walls or stone paving, which adds depth, variation and interest to the flat-colour work.

How would you describe yourself as an artist?

Ooh this is tricky! I guess I’m a digital illustrator and designer with a love for colour and bold graphics, who is inspired by the natural world, incredible landscapes and a sense of adventure.

What have been the highlights of your illustrating career so far?

Well actually, being asked to illustrate for Ernest twice has been pretty cool. It’s such an honour to be asked by any publication to produce work for them, and I’ve had a number of front covers, which is particularly exciting and a bit surreal when you see your artwork on display in the magazine racks of shops.

Other highlights include illustrating a number of books, including those written by my dad, which subsequently formed the basis of a collaborative poetry and illustration exhibition shown at Oriel y Parc in St Davids, Pembrokeshire. It was wonderful to work on a much bigger scale for this and design specifically for the beautiful circular tower room with its impressive conical roof. I also recently created album artwork for a wonderful musician called Jenny Biddle. It was really good fun and it still makes me smile to I see my cover art pop up on Spotify!

I think the biggest highlight, though, has been building my own brand and product line, which I sell both online and across the country in over 50 fantastic independent shops and galleries. It’s lovely to know that my work helps support these wonderful businesses and that it is being enjoyed in people’s homes and workplaces, or being shared with friends and family. It’s always such a boost to hear wonderful feedback from happy customers, and I love forming friendships with my stockists who’ve encouraged me and helped my business thrive over the years.

Are there any other exciting projects you're working on?

I don’t have a lot of projects on the go currently - lockdown has sapped my creativity and I’ve also been distracted by keeping up with what’s been a really busy online sales period during the pandemic. I do have a few projects in the background that have been sitting idle for a while - including a new book with my dad (sorry Dad, I’ll get there at some point) - and a short illustrated story I’m hoping to make into a zine. I’m hoping I’ll find the energy and inspiration to get back to these really soon as well as create a new collection, which is long overdue. I did create a little folded book last month, which has been really well received, so I might try to do more of those as they’re small and manageable, while I find my creative mojo again!

Where do you turn for inspiration, particularly when you're in a creative lull?

Normally I would take myself off to the Pembrokeshire coast where my mum and dad live, but obviously that hasn’t been possible recently. Beach walks and spa breaks normally help to get my creative juices flowing and I can’t wait til this is a possibility again. I would say that I’m definitely in need of a break and change of scenery! I’ve experienced a creative lull for the last year and have really only been able to focus on, and complete, much smaller projects. I’ve had a few ideas, but they haven’t really gone anywhere yet so only time will tell as to whether any of these ideas take hold.

I’m always surprised when inspiration strikes though. In the past it has come from specific briefs; pieces of writing and poetry; flicking through coffee table books and watching my niece. Quite a few of my collections have been sparked by a single word or theme given to me by a gallery for an upcoming exhibition. I also get a lot of inspiration from my family – we are all creative and have lots of projects on the go.

What have you taken away from this past year?

I guess, like everyone, it has been a mixed bag of positives and negatives. On the plus side, I’m lucky that business has really flourished since the start of the pandemic, probably largely down to people turning to online shopping, and this has been a massive help in keeping me busy and distracted throughout. Of course, missing family is probably the hardest part and I have struggled at times with my anxiety as well as missing my dancing and exercise classes a lot.

But on the whole, being a natural introvert and a home-bod has meant that the lockdown suits me quite well and hasn’t affected my everyday life all that much. I already worked from home for myself so I think this has been a major factor in being able to cope with that aspect well. We are also very lucky to have a beautiful space to live and work in after completely renovating it over the last few years and which we had nearly finished before the first lockdown: it certainly would have been a different experience had we been in the chaos of the earlier stage of our renovations!

Tell us about your work space - how does it reflect you?

My partner and I have backgrounds in architecture, so interior and product design is a shared passion for both of us. We’ve spent the last three years (on and off) completely redesigning and renovating our Georgian townhouse apartment in the centre of Bath. We both now work for ourselves from home as illustrators and designers so the whole apartment transitions between computer work; messy printmaking space; product making and packing station; photo studio; exercise area and chill-out space daily.

We use the whole space all day long so we’ve designed it to be free-flowing and versatile. We’ve also had to be quite clever creating storage and work areas for all situations, and so that everything can be tidied away easily at the end of the day. Luke has incredible carpentry skills and we rent a workshop space across town, so we’ve built every piece of furniture and joinery ourselves, including the kitchen, so it’s been pretty chaotic (and very dusty!) at times. But, I’m happy to say the renovations are now complete, there’s no more dust and no more hauling extremely heavy building materials across town and up four flights of stairs. It’s now truly the most beautiful and energising space to work and live in. It has lovely high ceilings and large shuttered windows so feels light and airy, and it has a real Scandi minimalist vibe with white walls, warm white washed pine with grey and black accents and an ever growing collection of plants, which I try my hardest to keep alive! I feel incredibly privileged and lucky to have had such a beautiful space to live and work in through lockdown and it has certainly helped to keep my spirits lifted.

We do have a large table for design work, but Luke uses it more than me so I usually transition pretty quickly to the sofa with my laptop! I actually spend most of my day making products and packing up orders, so on the opposite side of the room we’ve made a sideboard unit with large drawers and a high worktop for my workstation. It turns into complete chaos while I’m working but it always tidies away really quickly and we manage to squirrel away a lot of materials in various storage spaces. Even my printer is tucked away in a cupboard so it’s hidden when I’m not using it. My mum always says that you should keep your corners clear and your working surfaces empty, so I think that’s ingrained in me. We do have a number of gallery shelves, though, which act as rolling inspiration spaces, with collections of art, ephemera, covetable objects and magazines we’ve picked up. It’s lovely to add colour and mood to the flat in way that’s ever changing and adaptable.

The light in the flat is magical all day long and I’m enamoured by how it it changes all year. I’ve always been affected by internal environments and am a massive home-bird so the space definitely reflects my love for light, sophisticated design and cosy homely vibes.

What’s on your bedside table?

Well, my bed is very low, so I don’t have a table as such, but I always keep my Kindle close - I can’t get to sleep without reading before bed. I also have a lavender eye pillow in reaching distance for ultimate relaxation!

You can see Ruth’s ‘Milk of Deer’ illustrations in issue 10 of Ernest, on sale now, and you can also purchase Ruth’s ‘Breath of the Wild’ wooden postcards on our store page. Discover more of Ruth’s work at ruththorpstudio.co.uk