Welcome to the Bracken Press PRINT-workshop website

Intaglio (etching, drypoint, aquatint)

& block printing & wood engraving  

(lino-prints, surface printing) & letterpress


Established 1974.

Email  



Postponed until the type caes have been moved to the new site


Due to forthcoming commitments there will be no courses in 2025






Letterpress / Wood engraving / block printing    2 day course.

9.30 a.m. - 6.00 p.m. both days


Day 1 Letterpress


Introduction to letterpress printing

Hand setting the wood metal type

The lay of an imporove type box

Quoins & locks for the chase

Point sizes and spacing.

Registration

Colour separations

Preparing to print

Make readies & make pieces

Adjusting the press

Printing

Dissing the text.



Day 2 Wood engraving


Preparing your design

Reversing the image

Transfering image to block

Practise block cutting with burins/ gravers

Preparing to print

Make readies & make pieces

Proofing & improving

Editioning your finished wood engraving.

Damping paper prior to printing

Printing dry or damp



Setting type & wood engraving together, the principles



Care of the equipment, solvents used etc.




At the close of the day you should have achieved a printing of at least an edition of 10 prints or more, depending on your skill.


Included in the course fee:-

A comprehensive list of current suppliers of materials.

English Boxwood block

Printing inks and consumables are included in the course fee.

Hand made paper.


















 

The Harrild & Sons Table top Albion Press

Fleet Works, London E.C. 1869


Platen size : 16 x 11 inches (fools cap)

Bed size:   19 x 13 inches

Cast iron approximate weight .5 ton.

Used for text / lino-prints / wood engraving.


There are 5 platen presses to use at Bracken Press,  for  lino- printing, letterpress , wood cut & wood engraving.

All dating from the 19th Century.



Workshop view, 11 x 5.5 metres
Fully equipped to produce, etchings, lino - prints, wood engravings, wood cuts.
A compositors lay slab, used for laying out the letters in a chase before printing. Cast iron top with drawers underneath for storing full chases. Heater box for printing of etchings.
Another compositors table with assembled text
Text locked into a chase ready for printing.
Assembly of text before printing.
Panoramic photo: Etching bay, Albion (large), Albion (small), etching press
Rollers inked up prior to printing
Cases of letterpress
full fonts
Prepared English Boxwood blocks for wood engraving

Click on a photo to enlarge.

The Albion Platen Press



Cast iron approximate weight 1.5 tons.


Used for all surface printing, lino cuts, text, wood engravings, colographs & mono prints. manually operated, inking by hand held roller. The sort of press that Caxton would have used ( only his was made of wood).

The backbone of Bracken Press, this press was purchased in 1974 in Wensleydale.

Recently refurbished, follow link.

This introductory course will introduce you to Letterpress printing with hands on experience. Working on page size of up to A4 using a mixture of wood and metal type you will learn how to create prints using a range of colours.


Wood engraving: working on small scale English Boxwood blocks using specialist burins you will learn how to cut your design into an end grain woodblock. Printing the block on 19th century printing presses you will produce a limited edition of prints.

  

Once you have completed a course at Bracken Press Print - workshop and you want to continue with your printmaking projects and you do not have ready access to any printing equipment you will be welcome to use the facilities at Bracken Press Print- workshop on a daily fee basis with materials charged at cost.


Several artists already make use of the facilities at Bracken Press to either edition more prints of an existing image or to create new images.