Our print studios are light, bright and fully equipped for paper and textile screen printing, etching and intaglio processes, linocut and woodcut printing, photo-etching, solar plate, photo-plate lithography, plywood lithography, relief print, monoprint, collagraph and letterpress.

We pride ourselves on providing a welcoming, supportive and inclusive atmosphere for everyone. We aim to keep our studios accessible and user-friendly, supporting members in making work, and keeping hazardous substances to a minimum wherever possible. We are also environmentally conscious and mindful of how we dispose of materials, recycling and re-using wherever we can.

To use our studio facilities, you will need to be a member. You can find out more about membership and sign up on our membership page.

The hourly studio hire cost includes all equipment, with the exception of screens, (for which there is an additional daily hire charge), and consumables, which can be bought from our shop. We stock screen printing inks & print medium (Daler-Rowney System 3), paper, (from cartridge to quality printmaking papers), sheet metal cut to size, (zinc, steel, aluminium, copper), lino and wood blocks, drypoint plastic, cutting tools, etc.

Printmaking in the workshop
Screen printing
Screen Printing beds

UPSTAIRS STUDIOS – SCREEN PRINTING

Located on the upper floor of the building, our sunny screen printing studio contains all the equipment you need to do the whole screen print process, and we only use water-washable inks.

  • Screens for hire: 100T mesh for paper and 43T mesh for textiles – various sizes up to 112 x 78cm. Hire cost £1.55 per screen per day in addition to hourly fee.
  • 2 x Kippax vacuum print tables with squeegee arm, 145 x 98cm bed size.
  • Textile printing table with neoprene surface 2 x 4ft
  • 4-colour table-top carousel for printing textiles, made by Wicked Printing Stuff
  • Coating emulsion and reclaimer
  • Screen filler
  • Natgraph UV exposure unit, useable area 125 x 100cm
  • Fluorescent tube light box 110 x 84cm
  • Drying cupboard
  • Screen washout room with pressure washer
  • Squeegees in a range of sizes to fit screens
  • Large drying rack 158 x 107cm
  • Coating troughs and ends
  • Canon TM-200 large format printer for outputting high quality transparencies up to A1 size.
  • Photocopier for outputting transparencies up to A3 size.

For more information about the screen printing process, see our ‘guide to printmaking’ page: (link)

DOWNSTAIRS STUDIOS

Our downstairs print studios house our facilities for intaglio, relief, letterpress and lithographic processes.

PRINT ROOM

  • Hunter-Penrose etching press, bed size 122 x 71cm (adjustable)
  • Rollaco etching press, bed size 46 x 91cm (adjustable)
  • Imperial platen press (not adjustable – pressure adjusted with packing only). Bed size 94 x 67cm, platen size 87 x 58.5cm
  • Range of Perspex plates for monoprinting
  • Scrap paper drawer
  • Rubber rollers – various sizes and circumferences plus 3 x large spindle rollers.
  • Paper soaking bath 107 x 77cm
  • Drying rack 107 x 108cm, plus ball drying racks
  • Hawthorn Stay-Open inks are provided to use in the studios for an extra fee of £3 per session. These are suitable for intaglio, relief and litho printing, and are cleaned up with vegetable oil.
  • Glass inking-up stations
  • Push knives and palette knives
  • Drying board stack
  • Communal use scrim and blotters (members can also purchase their own from the shop (link))
  • Ink modifiers – driers, magnesium carbonate, linseed oil.
Print room
Relief printing at WYPW
Etching at WYPW
Letterpress type at WYPW
Letterpress at WYPW

PLATE PREP ROOM

  • Aquatint rosin box 153 x 64cm
  • Copper sulphate solutions for etching zinc, aluminium and steel
  • ‘Edinburgh Etch’ solution for etching copper
  • Etching trays, various sizes
  • Hot plate 71 x 61cm
  • Drying cupboard
  • Liquid ground, ball grounds, stop-out varnish and straw hat.
  • Etching tools, scrapers, burnishers, metal files, paintbrushes
  • Metal guillotine

Letterpress

Our plate prep room also houses our growing collection of letterpress equipment:

  • 3 x Adana tabletop presses
  • 1 x Sigwalt tabletop press
  • Setting sticks
  • Galley trays in a range of sizes
  • Chases in a range of sizes
  • Quoins and keys
  • Furniture
  • Leads
  • A range of metal type in varying typefaces and point sizes.
  • Extra spacing
  • Borders
  • Lead cutter

Dark Space

  • Large sink for developing or degreasing large-size plates
  • Developing trays
  • Developer solution for photo-litho and photo-etching plates
  • Drying unit
  • Sponges and containers
  • Light-proof carrying folders

To find out more about any of these printmaking processes, visit our ‘Guide to Printmaking’ page.