Some of your Questions:

Q. How is my print delivered?

I prefer to send smaller prints flat and transparently wrapped. For safety in transit however, prints 14x17 and larger will be sent in a mailing tube. However, it may be that larger prints which are part of a multiple order can be sent flat within a bigger parcel.

With recent rises in materials sale items will not be mounted.

Q. How long will delivery of my print take?

I normally try to dispatch orders within two working days of receipt. I use Royal Mail first class and for higher value items, or where speed at busy times is important, use their Special Delivery service (signed for).

So you should get your print within 7 working days of your order.

When I know I shall be away on holidays, exhibitions etc., I shall try to indicate that in the Blog section of the site.

Q. How should I display my print?

All works on paper, etchings, watercolours, drawings etc., should be mounted and framed under glass. The card mount is to stop the paper of the work touching the glass. Most good framers use acid free board these days but if in doubt specify conservation grade mountboard around the print and acid free backing behind the print. This will prevent discolouration of the work over time.

Q. Which materials are used to print the plate?

My etchings are printed on Somerset 300 gsm etching papers. For delicate atmospheric pieces I use their Soft White paper but where more contrast is needed I use the Bright White. Most of my collagraphs are printed on the Somerset too but when the plate is very “lumpy” and deep I use Velin Arches 400 gsm. Both are 100% cotton rag archival papers and very expensive!

My inks are oil based* etching inks mostly from the London firm of Intaglio Printmaker with some special colours from the French Charbonnel range.

*For technical reasons my sort of collagraphs cannot be printed with water soluble inks and so I keep the whole studio oil based but minimize solvent use with vegetable based cleaning procedures.

Q. Why are your editions of different sizes?

The size of my editions is determined by when the inking, wiping and squashing through the press causes visible wear of the plates and of the resultant print. Etchings are bitten into copper plates which wear out more slowly than the cardboard, paper and plastic collages which print the collagraphs.

Even with copper a delicately bitten aquatint etching will wear more quickly than a deeply bitten mass of linear details and marks. So with etchings I hope for 40 to 50 prints but with collagraphs feel lucky if I get 25.

Much of my work is experimental and passes through the print process several times before I’m happy with the final state. So some plates are part worn before I start the edition proper!

Q. Are all prints in an edition identical?

When the printing an edition is finished all the separate prints are placed in a stack of blotting paper to dry.

The printing is a skillful hand process of mixing and applying several coloured inks, wiping the surface, cleaning edges and accurate registration where two plates contribute to the final print.

It’s easy to make a mess and print work badly and there are always some errors.

Two weeks later when the paper and inks are dry the blotter stack is opened. All the prints are taken out and compared with the original “printers proof” taken while making the plate(s). Then follows a painful process of rejecting the substandard.

What is left is the edition which can then be signed, titled and numbered. The whole thing is a hand process so there is inevitably some variation but this process minimizes it.

Q. Do you offer courses?

Since the retirement of the residential art centre here in Norfolk where I used to teach I no longer offer weekend courses. However I do still like to take my portable press to suitable art events where I’m exhibiting and demonstrate the printing of etchings and collagraphs and show how the plates are made and how they relate to the effects I achieve.