Thumb Print original hand-pulled black walnut tree ring print with a natural fingerprint-like form in black ink on white paper

Thumbprint

Original Signature Black
$150 CAD
Sale price  $150 CAD Regular price 
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Thumb Print original hand-pulled black walnut tree ring print with a natural fingerprint-like form in black ink on white paper

Thumbprint

$150 CAD
Sale price  $150 CAD Regular price 
Select your interpretation (colour):

✓ Every Wooden Ink print is an original, hand-pulled impression.
Please allow up to one week for your print to be prepared for shipping.
If your chosen print is already available in the studio, it may ship sooner.

Prints are shipped unframed, carefully rolled in a sturdy mailing tube on their full 18 × 24 inch sheet of archival paper. Frames shown are for display purposes only.
✩ Every Wooden Ink print includes a companion Tree Story Card and Species Card.

The Story of Thumb Print

We’re born with our fingerprints. Trees spend a lifetime growing theirs.

Some people see a fingerprint when they look at this print. I used to always see the flame of a birthday candle. So many people saw a thumb print, that it's now sometimes the first thing that I see. I like that neither answer is wrong.

This quiet Black Walnut slab doesn’t have the dramatic shape or unusual grain of some of the others in the Wooden Ink collection. What drew me to it was something simpler: the way its rings gather around an off-centre beginning and sweep upward, creating a pattern that feels strangely familiar.

A fingerprint. A flame. Something entirely different, depending on who is looking.

And perhaps that’s what I love most about it.

No two people carry the same fingerprint, just as no two trees spend a lifetime growing the same pattern of rings. Both are shaped slowly, over time. Both become a record that belongs to one life and no other.

The slab is the original manuscript. The print is the interpretation.

And this one seems to leave a little room for the viewer to write their own.

Every life leaves its mark.

FOREST
NOTES

Black Walnut may have a dark name, but it is a tree that wants the light.

It is considered a shade-intolerant species, meaning young Black Walnuts generally need good access to sunlight to thrive. In crowded forests, competition from neighbouring trees can strongly influence how successfully they grow. On favourable sites, mature trees can become substantial — commonly reaching around 80 feet tall, with exceptional specimens growing considerably taller.

That search for light becomes part of the tree’s architecture. The trunk, crown and annual growth all develop in response to the space and resources available around it — another reminder that even the pattern preserved inside a slab was shaped partly by the world beyond it.

Every fingerprint is individual. So is every path toward the light.

Looking for something a little different?

Explore different colours, papers, and prints from slabs not currently offered online.

Explore custom options

Why Hand-Pulled?

Every Wooden Ink print begins with a reclaimed tree and is hand-pulled from the original slab.

The Original Slab

The slab is the original manuscript. Carefully cut from reclaimed timber. Every print is one interpretation of the story it spent a lifetime writing.

Hand-Pulled

Every print is inked and pulled by hand using the original slab. No digital reproductions. No automated printing. Each pull carries the subtle character of the process.

Every Print is Unique

No two prints are exactly alike. Because your print is hand-pulled from reclaimed timber, slight variations in ink and pressure combine naturally to make your print uniquely yours.