Art courses available at the West Yorkshire Print Workshop, Mirfield.
The West Yorkshire Print Workshop is an open access facility that makes printmaking and other art forms accessible to everyone through a regular programme of classes & courses for people of all abilities.
WYPW classes and courses offer high quality tuition by experienced, practicing artists. We keep groups small to give you a more practical and hands on experience and beginners are more than welcome.
All course prices include basic materials. Places are filling up fast so book now to avoid disappointment!
Most courses can act as a lead-in to membership. If you decide to join as a member within 2 weeks of completing a course, we offer guaranteed technical support for your first 12 hours in the workshop with whichever technique you are using. Please see our MEMBERSHIP page for further details.
Please contact us by phone or e-mail for course enquiries & bookings.
(online booking coming soon.....)
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The majority of our courses are designed so that you will gain the skills and confidence required to enable you to join WYPW as a member, and use the facilities on an open-access basis. You can then carry on practising the techniques you have learned, and develop your skills further, with technical support available if needed.
SPRING/SUMMER 2010 COURSES
NTRODUCTION TO PRINTMAKING | Kathryn Desforges / Sammy Palfrey| 6 WEEK COURSE
Come and get your creativity flowing in a friendly, artistic environment! Over 6 evenings, this course will give you a taster of all the areas of printmaking offered at WYPW, including monoprint, collagraph, drypoint, etching, linocut and screen print. It will give you an all-round introduction to a range of processes, and by experimenting with different techniques, you will get a feel for which best suits you and your style of working. Once you have completed the course, non WYPW members will then be entitled to a 10% discount on any of our other courses advertised in this season’s brochure, so that you can develop your skills further!
Click here for more information on one of the tutors - Kathryn Desforges
Thursday evenings, starting 8th July 10 - FULL
7pm - 9pm
£100 (£90*) for 6 weeks
Max 6 people
ETCHING | KATHRYN DESFORGES
This evening course will cover all the basics of hard and soft ground etching using copper plates and etching with ferric chloride, a less toxic alternative to the traditional nitric acid, and is a great course for beginners and those who need a refresher. You will learn how to prepare, etch and print a metal plate, with a hands-on approach, as well as inking and registration techniques.
Kathryn Desforges is a practising artist who specialises in printmaking, and is also technician at WYPW.
Click here for more information Kathryn's own website.
Course 1: Thursday evenings, starting 13th May 10, 6.30 – 9.15pm Course 2: Weekend course: Sat 31st July / Sun 1st August 10, 11am – 5pm
6.30pm - 9.15pm
£110 (£99*) for 5 weeks/weekend
Max 6 people
COLLAGRAPH: PRINTING WITH TEXTURE | SAMMY PALFREY
This technique was developed in the 1950's, as an innovative and exciting way to create your own printing plates using materials which can be easily obtained and found around the home, enabling line, tone and texture to be created all on the same plate! The course covers all developments of this technique, including using carborundum grit to create rich tones, and combining monoprinting and chine collé techniques to add layers of colour.
Sammy Palfrey is an experienced artist printmaker and member of the ‘Inkers’ printmaking group, and exhibits her work widely.
Course 1: Wednesday evenings, starting 16th June 10 Course 2: Weekend course, Sat 17th / Sun 18th April 10, 10am – 4pm 6.30-9.15pm
6.30pm - 9.15pm
£110 (£99*) for 5 weeks
Max 6 people
SCREEN PRINTING | CLARE CAULFIELD | WEEKEND COURSE
Learn the processes involved in translating drawings and photographs into a screen print. The course will cover everything you need to get you started, from preparing your artwork for print and getting your image onto a screen using the photo-stencil technique, to printing and registration, using water-based inks. Explore this diverse medium in a friendly learning environment using our excellent facilities.
Clare Caulfield is a practising artist and long-standing member and keyholder at WYPW, and exhibits her work nationally. Course 1: Sat 17th / Sun 18th July 10 - FULL Course 2: Sat 4th / Sun 5th September 10
10am-4pm £110 (£99*) Max 5 people
TEXTILE PRINTING FOR BEGINNERS | CAROL SOUTHERN | WEEKEND COURSE Learn how the screen print process works in our fully equipped workshop and take home t-shirts and bags printed with your very own design! No experience necessary. 2 t-shirts and 2 bags are included in the course cost, and extra are available to purchase on the day, both adult and child sizes available.
Carol Southern is a WYPW member and has over 15 years experience of working as a fashion designer.
LINO CARD MAKING | KATHRYN DESFORGES| DAY COURSE
This day course will teach you how to transfer an image onto a piece of lino, along with cutting and printing techniques. Using water based inks, you will then produce a small edition of one colour lino cut cards, perfect for sending out to friends and family. This course is suitable for beginners and those with some experience. Kathryn Desforges is a practising artist who specialises in printmaking, and is also technician at WYPW.
Kathryn Desforges is a practising artist printmaker, and was fortunate enough to have learned the technique from Dan Welden himself.
Click here for more information Kathryn's own website.
Course dates: Sat 10th July 10 11am-5pm
11am-5pm
£60 (£54*)
Max 6 people
FELT-MAKING, MIXED-MEDIA & MORE | CATHERINE GREEN | DAY COURSE
Catherine is a textile artist based at WYPW. She uses techniques such as felt-making, devoré, appliqué, collagraph and screen print to produce colourful, textural pieces. Courses take place in Catherine’s studio.
Course dates: Please visit www.catherinegreen.co.uk for the current course programme and dates, or contact Catherine on 07811 609607 for more information.
10am-4pm
Max 4 people
£50 (includes materials)
BLACK & WHITE PHOTOGRAPHY| SUE MACKLIN | DAY COURSE These day courses will show you the basics of 35mm black and white photography, from loading a film and adjusting the settings on a camera, to developing and printing your images in our fully-equipped dark room. As our dark room is an open-access facility, you can then join as a member and continue using the dark room during opening hours. Please ask for more details about membership.
Sue Macklin is a trained photo-journalist and exhibits her work regularly.
Course dates: Courses usually run on a Saturday, subject to demand. Please contact the workshop for details.
10am-4pm
£65 (£58.50*)
Max 3 people
-Professional Development Courses
PRINTMAKING FOR THE CLASSROOM | ANDREW HAMBLETON | 2 DAY COURSE
This course is specifically designed for those working in education. You will learn to translate ideas through simple printmaking techniques which can be used in the classroom, either with or without a printing press. Using materials such as polystyrene, plywood, perspex, and inks which can be cleaned up using soap and water, you will learn to produce abstract, vivid relief prints and expressive, painterly monoprints.
Andrew Hambleton is a studio holder at WYPW and practising artist and facilitator. He exhibits his work widely and specialises in printmaking.
Course dates:
Fri 2nd / Sat 3rd July 2010
10am-4pm
£120 (£108*)
Max 7 people
MONOPRINTING WEEKEND | KIP GRESHAM| WEEKEND COURSE
Kip Gresham is a collaborative printmaker. Based at The Print Studio in Cambridge, he works with well known artists from all around the world to produce work of an extremely high standard. Monoprinting is a key element in his own work, used as an experimental test bed for new ideas.
This weekend workshop will introduce key concepts such as layering, counter-proofing, the use of found objects, and blind embossing. The combination of processes and freedom from the repetitive nature of printmaking will in turn help you to develop new ways of working, and encourage new thought processes and ideas.
Course dates:Sat 5th/Sun 6th June 10
10am-4pm
£120 (£108*)
Max 6 people
WOOD ENGRAVING | ANNE DESMET | WEEKEND COURSE
This course will provide a creative introduction to the art of fine line engraving using specialist tools on end-grain boxwood and lemon wood. The course will also include printing with and without a press and tool-sharpening made easy. The creative possibilities of collage using wood engraved prints and other unusual printed papers will also be explored.
Anne Desmet RE RWA SWE, specialises in wood engraving. Her work has won over 20 awards and features in museum collections worldwide. She is editor of Printmaking Today and co-author of the bestselling book: Handmade Prints, an introduction to printmaking without a press. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to benefit from her expertise!
Anne’s major touring exhibition: Anne Desmet - Urban Evolution, opened at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester in 2008 and has since been touring the UK. At the time of this workshop, the exhibition will be on show at its final venue: Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, and will run from 15th May – 25th July, with an opening on Sunday 16th May 2 -4 pm.
Course dates:Sat 19th/Sun 20th June 10 - FULL
11am-5pm
£120 (£108*)
Max 7 people
EXPERIMENTING WITH SOLAR PLATES | KATHRYN DESFORGES| WEEKEND COURSE
A relatively new method of printmaking developed by Dan Welden in the 1970s, Solar Plate printmaking is a welcome alternative to complicated and sometimes hazardous print processes. Drawings, photographs and photocopies can be translated easily and quickly into high-quality prints, and as the process does not use any hazardous chemicals it is also suitable to use in the classroom.
This workshop will teach you the basics of exposing and developing a plate using just UV light and water, and give you the tools to play and experiment to enable you to find a way of manipulating the technique to suit your way of working.
Kathryn Desforges is a practising artist printmaker, and was fortunate enough to have learned the technique from Dan Welden himself.
Course dates: Sat 21st/Sun 22nd Aug 2010
11am-5pm
£120 (£108*)
Max 6 people
*Prices in brackets apply to WYPW members.
West Yorkshire Print Workshop is an equal opportunities organisation.
Essential Information
All course prices include basic materials. West Yorkshire Print Workshop reserves the right to cancel courses. If this happens, full refunds will be given. If you need to cancel your place on a course and you give at least 10 working days notice, you will be offered a full refund in the form of a credit note, valid for one year, which can be used in payment towards another course. Unfortunately we are unable to offer refunds if the period of notice given is less than 10 working days. If we do not provide the course you are looking for, or if a course is fully booked, do get in touch and we can discuss alternative ways of meeting your requirements.
The West Yorkshire Print Workshop is an open access facility that makes printmaking and other art forms accessible to everyone through a regular programme of classes & courses for people of all abilities. 
