Our New Courses are now available for booking. We have introduced some exciting new additions as well as having some of our core popular courses available too.
These are likely to book up quickly so if you have checked your dates and have a course in mind that you have been waiting for, the best way of making a booking is to ring up Hot Bed Press and pay over the phone on 0161 743 3111.
We hope you like what we have on offer !
Please sign up to the mailing list for advance notice of our courses.
Introduction to Screenprint (weekend course)
Tutor: Mandy Tolley
Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th March 10.30am – 4.30pm
Over a weekend learn to screenprint in quick easy steps. From mixing your water-based inks and printing using simple paper stencils you will go on to layer and build up colours. On day 2 Mandy will show you how to coat and expose a photographic image onto screen and then to register and print your final key colour bringing the image together. You will come away with a small edition of screenprints and can go on to print further designs and editions.
Maximum 8 people cost £145 (*£125)
Expressive Printmaking (weekend)
Tutor: Jeni Nuttall
Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th March 10.30am – 4.30pm
Free yourself up with a new expressive way of working. You will be shown how to create vibrant multilayered images using monoprint, drypoint and carborundum. Painterly brushstrokes can be married up with raw scratched line and strong tonal markmaking. By overprinting and building up your images ‘full bleed’, [i.e. over the edge of the paper], you won’t need to worry about perfect registration and can focus on a painterly approach to printmaking.
Maximum 9 people cost £145 (*£125)
Introduction to Screenprint (4 evenings)
Tutor: Mandy Tolley
Fridays 10th – 31st March 6.00pm – 9.00pm
Learn to screenprint in 4 evenings. Mandy will show you how to plan your print in layers using simple paper stencils to build up colours which will sit under your photo-screened image. You will be shown how to coat and expose a photographic image onto screen and then to register and print your final key colour bringing the image together. You will come away with a small edition of screenprints and can go on to print further designs and editions.
Maximum 8 people cost £145 (*£125)
Mokulito Printing – Plywood Litho (weekend)
Guest tutor: Kate Desforges
Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th March 10.30am – 4.30pm
In plywood lithography, or ‘Mokulito’ traditional lithographic drawing materials are used to draw and paint onto the plywood surface. The drawing is then processed using gum arabic, and the block is inked up and printed using the etching press. Blocks can also be cut into using woodcutting tools, marrying up lithography with woodcut. Because of the coarser nature of wood in comparison to stone or metal plate, fine detail cannot always be retained, so this process would suit those who have a more experimental approach to image-making, embracing and working with the natural properties of the wood.
The grain of the wood will often show up in the background of prints, becoming stronger with each subsequent print, and ‘filling in’ until white becomes muddy and the block is no longer useable. Editions of anything from 3 – 15 can be produced from one block, depending on the individual properties of the wood used, the drawn image, the processing and the printing. Blocks cannot usually be re-printed.
Kate will guide you through this fascinating technique with a hands-on, experimental approach, providing examples, instruction and advice throughout. The aim of the course is to gain a good understanding of the process and to create a small run of prints from your own plywood block, and to give you the confidence to carry on using the technique in your own practice.
Maximum 8 people Cost: £160.00 / (*£140)
Painterly Screenprinting (weekend)
Tutor: Craig Atherton
Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th March 10.30am – 4.30pm
Go direct. Go large. Go expressive. Layer up. This weekend will be full of experimentation and exploration. Craig will show you how to paint and draw an image on screen, flood with medium and build up a painterly image through the screen. Each print will be unique and you can bring your own style to the prints. Learn to mask off areas, build up depth of tone and vibrancy of colour and gain confidence in this direct approach. Make mistakes, embrace them, move on.
Maximum 8 people cost £145 (*£125)
Monoprint Taster (one day workshop)
Tutor: Jeni Nuttall
Sunday 2nd April 10.30am – 4.30pm
Spend an enthralling day taking your drawings, sketchbooks, photographs and found material in a new direction. You will be taught to work with different materials to add to your mark-making through trace and free-hand drawn monoprinting, adding colour, overprinting and juxtaposing lines and marks along the way. By the afternoon you will go on to develop a wide range of painterly marks working directly onto a perspex plate and printing through our etching presses. These one-off prints are full of vitality and expression and open a new world of printmaking to the uninitiated. This course is an ideal introduction to printmaking and Hot Bed Press.
Maximum 9 people cost £75 (*£65)
Drypoint Taster (one day workshop)
Tutor: Jeni Nuttall
Sunday 16th April 10.30am – 4.30pm
Bring new life and a fresh vocabulary to your drawing and sketching. Working with a variety of drypoint tools you will be shown how to gouge out plates in a raw and dynamic manner creating a range of marks, which can be inked, wiped and printed in different ways to create vibrant and stunning prints. Go on to experiment with electric Dremels and sandpaper to further develop your image and range of marks. This course marries up the best of both worlds of drawing and printmaking. It is ideal for beginners.
Maximum 9 people cost £75 (*£65)
Collagraph Taster (one day workshop)
Tutor: Jeni Nuttall
Sunday 23rd April 10.30am – 4.30pm
Transform a plain piece of mountboard into an exquisite printing plate, cutting fine lines, subtle areas of tone and adding texture surface pattern to your plate. The varnished plate can be inked and wiped to varying degrees. The resulting prints will be full of texture and tone, as well as life and vitality. You can work in a very expressive way or refine the cutting and wiping of the plate to be intricate and detailed.
Maximum 9 people cost £75 (*£65)
Mezzotint (weekend)
Guest tutor: Justin Sanders
Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th May 10.30am – 4.30pm
Create a plate of intense, dense black by indenting a solid field of dots using a mezzotint rocker and work back into the copper plate by burnishing tones that reveal themselves from the dark giving a strong sense of depth, form, and chiaroscuro, (light to dark contrasts). Justin Sanders, Senior Print Technician at The University of Birmingham will show you the skills of burnishing as well as tricks and tips to make your prints strong and atmospheric.
Maximum 9 people cost £145 (*£125)
Copper Sulphate Etching (weekend)
Tutor: Lois Gilbert
Saturday 20th & Sunday 21st May 10.30am – 4.30pm
Copper sulphate is quick and effective on aluminium and unlike nitric acid there is no need for an extraction cabinet. It is suitable for etching safely at home. You will be instructed on how to mix your own copper sulphate recipe and experiment with different ways of mark-making using hard and soft ground as well as various resists. For seasoned etchers it could transform your practice. For those new to etching it will open a world of possibilities.
Maximum 8 people cost £145 (*£125)
Photopolymer Printing (weekend course)
Tutors: Lois Gilbert
Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th June 10.30am – 4.30pm
Discover the subtle tonal qualities and fine detail available through photopolymer plates using photographic imagery and hand drawn originals. You will learn how to make test strips and achieve perfect exposure of the plate to get great depth and tonal range from your original imagery. The plate is ‘developed’ in tap water. No need for acid or caustic solution. Go on to ink and print in different ways achieving perfect printing.
Maximum 8 people cost £145 (*£125)
The Art of Lino Print (weekend)
Tutor: Sarah Frost
Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th June 10.30am – 4.30pm
Back by popular demand, Sarah will show you how to design and cut your block precisely. You will learn how to ink your lino consistently and print your block with barens, allowing you to print at home and develop your practice. You will come away with a handful of prints and your own cut lino block to carry on editioning at home, plus of course inspiration and a newfound knowledge and love of lino printing.
Maximum 8 people cost £145 (*£125)
Book & Box Making (weekend)
Tutor: Sylvia Waltering
Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th June 10.30am – 4.30pm
Over the two-day weekend workshop, you will learn how to make an A5 hardback book and a matching fold out portfolio box. On day one we will make a traditional hard-back, cloth bound book, complete with headbands, and bookmark ribbon. Once completed, we will go on to make a fold-out portfolio box that will be large enough to fit around your book and closes using hidden magnetic fasteners. All materials are provided, and you can choose from a wide range of bookcloth colours and beautiful decorative lining papers for the inside of the box. The course is ideal for those who already have some experience of making books but is also suitable for anyone who has no previous book binding experience.
Maximum 8 people cost £145 (*£125)
Letterpressed Posters (weekend)
Tutor: David Armes
Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd July 10.30am – 4.30pm
This course will explore the potential of using letterpress printing to create vibrant graphic prints with some twists and turns along the way. Over the weekend you will explore the collection of large metal display type and wood letter, working across galley presses and iron hand-presses. You will work with tutor David Armes to set type by hand, impose a forme, use a variety of inking styles and explore interference techniques such as pressure printing, white spirit application and ghost-printing. The result will be a small edition of bold poster prints. The course is ideally suited to those with some experience of letterpress basics but newcomers with a good visual sensibility and experience in handling ink and paper are welcome too.
Maximum 7 people
Mokuhanga Japanese Woodcut (weekend)
Guest tutor: Kate Desforges
Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th July 10.30am – 4.30pm
Mokuhanga, or Japanese woodblock printing uses water-based inks with no need for a press, which makes it a versatile, accessible and non-toxic method of printmaking. Made famous by artists such as Hokusai and the ‘Great Wave’, the technique dates back hundreds of years, and is still used by contemporary artists all over the world today.
On this hands-on weekend course you will be guided through designing and colour-separating an image by thinking in layers, transferring your image onto the block, carving your design using specialist tools, and printing your image by hand with watercolour paints, to create a small edition of A5 prints to take home. There will also be the opportunity to experiment with using creative inking techniques such as ‘bokashi’ to achieve gradients and multi-coloured prints.
The aim of the course is to give learners an idea of the possibilities of Mokuhanga. It would suit beginners or those who are looking for a refresher, but please be aware that carving does require a reasonable amount of dexterity.
Maximum 8 people cost £160 (*£140)
