letters and numbers, c. 1933

Nicholson began to make hand-printed textiles for his own domestic use. Later he welcomed their saleability, as it helped relieve his poor finances. In the 1930s he created several different designs, sometime in collaboration with his second wife, Barbara Hepworth. The prints were made with blocks of linoleum and were used for bedspreads, curtains and upholstery.

In the late 1940s Nicholson gave many of the blocks to his sister Nancy, who used them to print editions which she sold, alongside her own textiles, at Poulk Press in London.