This course will teach you all the basics of hard and soft ground etching, open-bite and aquatint, to enable you to create a wide variety of marks and effects. You will experiment with etching onto copper, zinc and aluminium plates using ferric chloride and copper sulphate solutions, both less-toxic alternatives to traditional nitric acid.

The course is led with a hands-on approach from the start, with 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 can act as a lead-in to membership of WYPW so that you can continue to use and develop the techniques you have learnt.

Kate Desforges is a practising artist who specialises in printmaking, and is also technician at WYPW. You can find out more about her on her website.

"The tutor clearly explained every stage of the process in a comprehensive way. Her tips on different printing techniques were very useful and she was very encouraging throughout the whole course. The facilities were exellent, and I'm looking forward to etching some more plates in your workshop soon!"

*Small print