The Curwen Print Study Centre is a valuable resource for students and artists who do not have their own presses or equipment. In a building at Chilford Hall, just next to a lovely winery, there is a large room crowded with presses, paper, pigments and – depending on the day – people. They reach out to learning institutions, and do on- and off-site educational days, but most importantly for me, they have open days where someone who has had a basic course may come and do anything in which they have been trained. The centre provides opportunities for artists who have not got the money or space for their own equipment.

They have the facilities for relief printing, lino and wood cuts, intaglio (printing from the negative spaces), etching of various sorts, drypoint, collagraph (literally printing from a collage), and lithography, as well as my main printing method, silk-screen. They can also support digital printing and various monotypes (any print where the printing process destroys the negative image) and monoprints (a deliperately restricted that may include hand colouring, collage, or monotype in its construction).

Their Gallery shows a small sub-set of the works created there, but for anyone interested in Printmaking and able to travel to Cambridge, I recommend their courses page as providing by far the easiest route into exploring this field.

The staff are friendly and knowledgeable, the resources available are very good, and the only drawback is the distance from the nearest station; cars make the journey far easier.