Ep. 83: MILA 'Earth Daughter Edition 01' — Limited Edition Art Print
LIMITED EDITION SERIES ~ (1 of 25) ~ (1 of 10) ~ (1 of 5)
Ep. 83: MILA 'Earth Daughter Edition 01' — Limited Edition Art Print
HAND-CUT RELIEF PRINT
PRINTED IN THE BYRON BAY HINTERLAND
She is not in the landscape. She is the landscape.
A woman with her eyes closed and her head bowed, arms stretched wide — and the arms keep going, until they are ridgelines. Pines grow along them. Below her a valley opens, a river runs out toward you, and light breaks at the centre. Sepia and umber watercolour on cotton rag.
Earth Daughter. The original artwork from Ep. 83, first in the series, now as a limited edition archival print.
Made to order in the Byron Bay Hinterland. Please allow 3–4 weeks.
AT A GLANCE
— Original artwork from Ep. 83 · first in the Earth Daughter series
— Watercolour original, reproduced as an archival pigment print
— Ilford Galerie 310gsm, 100% cotton rag
— Framed or unframed
— A4, A3, A2 and A0
— Editions of 25, 25, 10 and 5
— Printed in the Byron Bay Hinterland
— Made to order · please allow 3–4 weeks (A0, 4–5 weeks)
✓ Archival 100% cotton rag · ✓ Pigment inks · ✓ Made to order · ✓ Closed edition
MADE TO ORDER · ALLOW 3–4 WEEKS
Try to find the place where she stops. Follow the line of her shoulder outward and it becomes a slope; keep going and it becomes a ridge; keep going and there are trees on it. There is no point at which the body ends and the country begins, and the piece will not let you locate one. That refusal is the entire argument, and it is why this had to be watercolour. A drawn line would have been forced to decide. Wet pigment on damp paper cannot hold an edge even when you want it to — the medium is physically incapable of the distinction the image is refusing to make.
Then notice the pine trees. They are tiny, a few strokes each, scattered along the ridges of her arms, and they are doing more work than anything else in the picture. Without them she is a woman with her arms out. With them she is a mountain range. Scale in this image is established entirely by something you almost don’t see, and once you’ve seen it you cannot shrink her again.
The brightest thing here is not painted. At the centre, low, where the valley narrows, there is a burst of light — and it is bare paper. No white pigment, no highlight laid over the top. The artist made the sun by not touching it. In a medium built on accumulation, the most important passage is the one she withheld.
Everything moves downward and outward. The washes run from her shoulders into the ridges, from the ridges into the valley, from the valley into the river, and the river comes directly toward the viewer and off the bottom edge of the sheet. Water leaves the picture in your direction. She is the catchment.
And her face is turned away from all of it — eyes closed, chin lowered, utterly still at the top of a composition that is entirely in motion beneath her. She is not surveying what she holds. She is just holding it.
Sixty-five impressions of Earth Daughter will exist. Across every size, for the life of this label.
— A4 · edition of 25
— A3 · edition of 25
— A2 · edition of 10
— A0 · edition of 5
The editions fall as the paper grows. An A0 is not a larger A4 — it is a different object, on a different roll, taking two people to lift off the table and a wall tall enough to carry it. There are five.
1 of 5 means five people. Not five this season, not five per country. Five, ever.
When a size sells out, it closes. It does not return in another colourway, at another trim, or as an anniversary run. We keep a record of every edition against the artwork.
This is an edition, not the original. The original watercolour was painted once and is not for sale. What you are buying is an archival pigment print of it on cotton rag, strictly limited, and then stopped.
Printed on Ilford Galerie 310gsm — a 100% cotton rag, acid-free, archival fine-art paper with a soft matte surface and a natural white tone. No optical brighteners, so it will not yellow or shift. Pigment inks, rated for over a century without fading under normal conditions.
Cotton rag was chosen to match the original. A relief print is a conversation between a hard block and a soft sheet — the plank grain, the skips, the uneven coverage all exist because paper with tooth received them. A slick paper would reproduce the shape and lose the reason.
Each print is produced to order in Australia and inspected by hand before it leaves us.
— A4 · 21 × 29.7 cm · edition of 25
— A3 · 29.7 × 42 cm · edition of 25
— A2 · 42 × 59.4 cm · edition of 10
— A0 · 84.1 × 118.9 cm · edition of 5
A0 is chest height on most people. It is a wall, not a picture. If you are deciding between A2 and A0, measure the space first — the jump is larger than it looks on a screen.
Framed prints arrive ready to hang — a slim flat white timber moulding, a deep white cotton-rag mat, and glazing. No assembly, no trip to the framer.
Unframed prints ship flat, interleaved with acid-free tissue, in a rigid board mailer. A0 unframed ships rolled in a heavy-gauge tube. Every size is standard A-series, so an off-the-shelf frame will fit without custom cutting.
Hang out of direct sunlight. Handle unframed prints by the edges or with clean dry hands — cotton rag marks easily. Do not use glass cleaner directly on a framed print; spray the cloth, not the glass.
Every print is made to order. Printing begins within two business days of your order, and we ask you to allow 3–4 weeks in total. A0 prints take 4–5 weeks, because they travel by freight rather than post.
It is slower than holding stock. It also means there is no excess, and nothing gets pulped.
— Prints ship separately from garments. If your order includes both, the tee will come first.
— A4, A3 and A2 ship tracked with Australia Post. International shipping is available on these sizes, calculated at checkout.
— A0 prints ship by freight carrier, not Australia Post, and are available within Australia only. They exceed international parcel limits in both rolled and framed form.
Returns on prints. Every print is made to order, so we are not able to offer refunds or exchanges for change of mind. Please choose your size and finish carefully before ordering.
If your print arrives damaged, faulty, or not what you ordered, that is a different matter entirely — email us a photo within 7 days at oldest@daughtercollective.com and we will replace it or refund it, your choice. Your rights under the Australian Consumer Law are not affected by anything on this page.
What does “1 of 25” mean?
The edition size. We make 25 of the A4 and A3, 10 of the A2, and 5 of the A0 — and then that artwork is never printed at that size again.
Will it ever be reprinted?
No. Once an edition closes, it closes.
Is this the original painting?
No. The original is a one-off watercolour and is not for sale. This is an archival pigment reproduction of it — the paper texture is real, the brushwork is printed.
What is the paper?
Ilford Galerie 310gsm — 100% cotton, acid-free, archival. The same class of paper used for gallery editions.
Can I frame it myself?
Yes. Every size is standard A-series, so any off-the-shelf frame will fit without custom cutting.
How big is A0, really?
84 × 119cm — chest height on most people. A2 is 42 × 59cm, A3 is 30 × 42cm, A4 is 21 × 30cm.
Does it go with the other Earth Daughter prints?
It is the first of three. Ed. 02 is ALA, Ed. 03 is TERRA. They share a palette family and a format, and were made to sit together.
Why 3–4 weeks?
Each print is made to order rather than held in stock, then checked by hand before it ships. A0 takes 4–5 weeks because it travels by freight.
Can I return it if I change my mind?
Not on prints, because each one is made to order for you. Damaged or faulty prints are always replaced or refunded.
We named this label Oldest Daughter because the women who carry the most deserve something built to carry them back.
Every artwork in this series was made by hand, for one episode, and printed in our studio in the Byron Bay Hinterland. The prints exist so the work can live somewhere other than a wardrobe.
🤎 from the OD team
