Setting Up the Studio

I am lucky enough to have a reasonably large spare room which I have converted into a studio. This means I can make a mess without having to clear a space for everyday life and mealtimes. It is my own space.

 The floor is tiled with ceramic tiles which means I am not too worried about mess and spillage. 

I have abundant bookcases, shelving and cupboards as well as a chest of drawers from IKEA which takes paper of up to A2 size. I have two tables on which to work. 

Studio

An old set of bunk beds has been converted into a deep shelving unit for paper and canvas of greater than A2 size

Bunk Bed Shelving

For the printmaking course I have bought a ceiling mounted laundry drying rack. It has five bars, each of which can be raised or lowered individually. I will hang prints from the bars using bulldog clips. This allows me to dry my prints up out of the way.

Drying Rack

I have invested in basic equipment for printmaking including rollers or brayers and various inks. The spray bottles contain vegetable oil and water with washing up liquid for cleaning up oil-based inks. I also have a very large stack of rags (mainly vests and tee-shirts which my son has grown out of and are too scruffy to donate)

Rollers, inks and cleanup equipment

When I attended the mono print workshop, one of my fellow students gave me a tip that cheap glass chopping boards make great inking slabs so I bought a couple of these from Wilko.

Chopping board for an inking slab with
palette knives and lots of gloves

Although I will be mostly doing my printing by hand throughout the course, I found a small school etching press on special offer (FOME Italia). I couldn't resist putting my hand in my pocket. I have no idea how good or otherwise this will be. Its scope is limited because the print bed will only enable me to print up to A4 size but it looks reasonably sturdy and I have fixed it to an old MDF desk to make it stable. Even if it isn't much good I'm sure it will manage a few christmas cards each year!

FOME school etching press

Now I have my space organised it's time to make a start.