BTEC Trip to East London Printmakers

A student working on an etching plate with Nick from East London Printmakers

On October 17th , Year 13 BTEC had a daytrip to Hackney to visit an art studio called East London Printmaker’s. Miss Underhill introduced us to Nick Morley who works as studio coordinator, he also works independently as a printer and produces his own work in different printing techniques including etching, lino-cut printing and screen printing.

Nick gave us a tour of the working areas and explained health and safety in the studio and how to use the machinery correctly. Miss Underhill explained etching and how absorbing it can be. Nick then gave an etching demonstration with one of his etching plates. He explained to us how to prepare the plate and how acid must be applied for the engravings to become useable at the printing stage, he spread thick printing ink over each area and buffed the plate in circular motions to make sure the ink stayed in the grooves. After this process Nick showed us the printing process which resulted in the plate being manually wheeled through a press which printed and embossed the paper.

Throughout the tour of East London Printmaker’s Nick answered questions that we had for him about himself and the Printers studio, we found out about him not being interested in printing until he studied for a Foundation Degree at university which shaped his future interests. We also found out about ho much he sells his prints for and why. He gave us an insight to editions, he told us that an edition print must only be printed at the agreed amount of the artist, for example 10 prints, and only 10 prints must me made and sold. After making the print, the screen or plate must be destroyed as no other copies of the prints can be made for copyright and legal rights. We asked him how many prints he usually does in his editions and he explained that he usually makes 20-35 prints in one edition and only ever sells them for less than £50, this is because he believes that if someone who will buy a print which is cheaper than £50 because a handmade print requires craftsmanship, which is more valuable than the mass produced prints which are sold in nation wide stores.


Overall the trip to ELP really gave the Year 13 BTEC group a detailed insight to printing in general and basic information on selling or buying prints. We had a good day and got to learn lots of things which supported our BTEC unit in Surface Pattern. It allowed us to expand our knowledge beyond the facilities available at school.
East London Printmakers hold regular open galleries where prints are for sale and also has open days and memberships for artists who want to learn to print or continue printing for freelancing or personal leisure.

By Charlie Watts

Year 13