Saturday 31st May & Sunday 1st June 2025 | 10am - 4pm
Maximum 8 participants
$650 inclusive of GST
(includes most materials)
AVAILABLE AT CHECKOUT
Explore and produce stunning zinc plate etchings under the expert guidance of Robert Hails.
This week-end workshop is suitable for both beginners and experienced printmakers wanting to explore a new technique or extend their practice.
Explore a safe and simple approach to etching. Discover the magic of lines and marks on a zinc plate, the dynamism of tone with new methods of aquatint, and the world of colour with roll-ups and multi-plate work. It’s the centuries old art of zinc plate etching with a modern safe, environmentally friendly twist.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
Salt etching with copper sulphate plus table salt
Spray can aquatint
Shellac step-aquatint to create a range of tones
Multiplate printing for introducing multiple colours and/or tone/texture plus line
Rollover and stencil to introduce blocks of colour and colour gradients
Applications with lithography crayons.
CREATE AN EDITION OF PRINTS
Explore multiple approaches to an image or series of images. Create your personal body of work with Rob’s guidance. Be supported towards a variety of ways to introduce innovative mark marking to your prints.
SAFER WORK PRACTICES
All techniques explored in this workshop use simple and safe materials that can be easily obtained.
What you learn in the studio, you can easily take back to your home work space.
ABOUT ROBERT HAILS
Robert Hails works mostly on zinc plates to produce elegant and sometimes whimsical etchings. He loves to experiment with aquatint, rolled colour and wax pencil and is always looking for the ‘happy accident’.
Robert has a unique connection to the Baldessin Press and Studio. As a teenager he and his brothers Doug and Don helped George Baldessin and Tess Edwards Baldessin build the bluestone studio in St Andrews while he was a student at Eltham High School in the 1970’s.
In his printmaking, Robert pays attention to great detail, seeks patience and encourages his workshop students to take risks and to see where the journey of creating an etching may take them. Most of his works on paper respond to the characters, design, text and mystery of the theatre stage.
"I'm fascinated by this medium," he says. "It offers wonderful possibilities in depth of line, variations in tone and contrast, and can transform a simple idea into a unique life of its own. Results on zinc plate are potentially endless".
You are advised to book early to avoid disappointment.
What you should bring:
Apron
Disposable gloves
Lunch to share (tea & coffee provided)
Drawing material
Folio to take home your finished prints (at least A2 size)
Workshop Cancellations & Refunds
We understand that circumstances can change. A full workshop refund will be offered:
· if a workshop in which you are enrolled is cancelled or deferred to a date unsuitable for your attendance. This may be the case if a Covid lockdown is announced.
· upon receipt of an email indicating your intention to withdraw your enrolment when notice is provided to us at least three weeks in advance of the workshop start date.
Workshop Credit - Transfers
We are happy to transfer your enrolment to a future workshop, but this will depend on availability of studio space and three weeks notice being given to us.
