This photopolymer etching course is the perfect way to get into intaglio printmaking: it offers the opportunity to learn traditional ink techniques and combine them with this exciting modern process, and is therefore perfect for beginners in print, and for practitioners in related fields such as photography. Photopolymer involves coating a metal plate with light-sensitive emulsion; we will be exposing in a similar way to analogue photography or the screenprinting process, by using a UV exposure unit, and developing using water. The entire process is non-toxic.

The course will run from 10 - 4pm with a lunch break. In that time you will learn how to expose and develop your A5 plate, soak paper, and ink and print your plates on a traditional etching press. You will be provided with paper and a selection of oil-based inks to experiment with. You will be able to take plates home on the day; your prints will be left to dry, to be collected at a later date.  

What you will need to provide

We will need you to have chosen an image to work from in advance of the workshop - once you have emailed your image to us, we can process the image and have a positive ready for the day. 

Workshop Date: Saturday 29th March 10-4pm 

Workshop cost: £125, all materials included, payable in advance.

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‍How to book

Contact us at print.firstfloor@gmail.com, and you will be sent an invoice for the workshop fee. Once payment has been made via BACS, your place on the workshop will be reserved.

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Your Tutor

Kate Heap trained in hard/soft ground etching and aquatint at Wimbledon College of Art. Since 2017 she has worked as a technician at UAL, and as lead technician at the Curwen studio, where she created editions for Rose Wylie, Michael Armitage, and Bharti Kher. In her own practice she works with a combination of photopolymer intaglio, emboss and traditional hard ground etching. 

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