Intro to: Etching

Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th October 2022
10am – 4pm

Spend a fun, hands-on weekend learning the basics of etching to create your own hand-made prints in our professionally equipped studios. Famously used by artists such as Goya, Rembrandt and Picasso, etching produces prints with a unique quality of line and a characteristic embossed edge.

To make an etching plate, a resist is applied to a metal plate and acid is used to ‘bite’ areas which have been exposed. This creates grooves in the plate surface which hold ink when printed. On this introduction to etching course you will be working on zinc plates and etching using copper sulphate solution, a less toxic alternative to traditional nitric acid. You will learn how to use hard ground, soft ground and aquatint to enable you to create a wide variety of marks and effects.

The course is led with a hands-on approach from the start, with plenty of examples and demonstrations along the way. You will make 2 etching plates during the weekend, and there will be the opportunity to produce a good number of prints to take away with you. You will also learn about paper, inking and registration techniques. This is a great course for beginners and those who need a refresher, and is perfect as a lead-in to membership of WYPW, so that you can continue to use and develop the techniques you have learned.

The course price includes all basic materials including 2 x 12x15cm zinc plates, inks, cartridge paper, tools and equipment. Other materials and printmaking papers will be available to buy during the course if you would like to try something a bit different, or take some materials home to try out.

Our technician Kate Desforges runs this course. Kate has been making etchings and hybrid prints for over 15 years. She will guide you through the process step-by-step and ensure you leave with a good grounding (groan!) in the process.

For more information visit https://wypw.org/product/introduction-to-etching-2/