Ep. 85: TERRA 'Earth Daughter Edition 03' — Limited Edition Art Print
LIMITED EDITION SERIES ~ (1 of 25) ~ (1 of 10) ~ (1 of 5)
Ep. 85: TERRA 'Earth Daughter Edition 03' — Limited Edition Art Print
HAND-CUT RELIEF PRINT
PRINTED IN THE BYRON BAY HINTERLAND
She is made of what was taken away.
A woman sits curled into herself — knees drawn up, forehead resting on her own forearm, eyes lowered. Her hair leaves her head and keeps going, drawing out into nine concentric rings that wrap around her and nearly close. Terracotta on cotton rag, cut by hand into a block and pressed.
Earth Sister. The original artwork from Ep. 85, third in the Earth Daughter 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. 85 · third in the Earth Daughter series
— Hand-cut relief print, reproduced as an archival pigment print
— Ilford Galerie Rag Mat 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
Look at the line first, because it is the whole argument. In a drawing, the line is what the hand adds. Here it is the opposite — this is a relief print, so every white line is a groove the artist cut away and the press could not reach. The figure is not drawn onto the terracotta. She is carved out of it. She exists in the print only as absence, as the part that was removed. A woman described entirely by what has been taken from her is not a subtle idea, and the piece does not pretend otherwise.
Then look at the rings. They come out of her hair — they are her own material, leaving her body and turning into the thing that encircles it. This matters, because it changes who is doing what. She is not trapped inside something imposed on her. She has made her own enclosure out of herself, which is a far less comfortable proposition and a far more familiar one. The rings read as water, as orbit, as the growth rings inside a cut tree. All three are shapes made by time passing around a still centre.
And they do not close. On the right-hand side the arc breaks against her shoulder and forearm, and the circle is left open. Her raised hand — the only part of her reaching up and out, fingers interlaced over the top of her head — sits precisely in that gap. It is the one gesture in the piece that is not folded inward, and the composition has arranged everything else so that you arrive at it last.
She also refuses you. The face is in strict profile, eyes down, turned away from the viewer entirely. There is no invitation, no address, nothing performed. For a figure drawn nude this is pointedly uninterested in being looked at — the body here is not display, it is posture. Exhaustion, or protection, or prayer; the work declines to specify, and is better for it.
The surface tells the rest. The terracotta sits unevenly, pitted with the pinholes and skips of a block pressed by hand into the tooth of the paper. The rings are not perfect circles. The line weight wavers. Nothing has been corrected. At A4 these read as texture; at A2 and above they stop being texture and become evidence — of pressure, of a hand, of a thing that happened once.
There is one more tension worth naming. Relief printing was invented to make many — the woodcut and the lino block are the democratic media, built for multiples, for cheapness, for reaching people. To cut an edition of twenty-five out of a medium designed for the unlimited is a deliberate contradiction, and it is the same contradiction this label keeps choosing: making a small number of something on purpose, in a system built to make everything forever.
Sixty-five impressions of Earth Sister 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 impression was cut by hand into a block, pressed 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 Rag Mat 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.
The paper was chosen to match the original. A relief print lives or dies on surface — the block puts ink into the tooth of the sheet, not onto it — and a slick paper would flatten everything that makes the impression worth having.
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. That is the point.
Is this a print of a drawing, or a print of a print?
Both, in a sense. The original is a hand-cut relief block, printed by hand. This is an archival pigment reproduction of that original impression, so the texture of the block and the paper it was first pressed into comes with it.
What is the paper?
Ilford Galerie Rag Mat 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 A4, A3, A2 or A0 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.
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 order it with a tee?
Yes — they will ship separately, the tee first.
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
