The Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts ranks traditional crafts by the likelihood they would survive to the next generation. Heritage Crafts have released the list of Endangered Crafts for 2023, and this year both Lithography and Letterpress are included on the endangered list. Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts

Stanley Jones created the Study Centre to preserve and protect hand crafted fine art printmaking, offering teaching in traditional printmaking skills including Lithography and Letterpress techniques. Our new studios also offer artists the opportunity to use the facilities to work under their own direction.

At the heart of our new premises is a dedicated gallery and display space for our Curwen archive, over 700 lithographs from some of the great artists of the 20th century. Thanks to the Art Fund crowdfunding, we are now working on cataloguing this unique archive, which includes artists’ correspondence, teaching materials, diaries and lithography stones, with the aim of making it an accessible resource, both online and in person.

Works can be seen in our gallery, free of charge, including prints and lithographic stones from artists including Elizabeth Frink, Paula Rego, Henry Moore, and Edward Bawden.

Thursday 17 August & Saturday 11 November 10.00 - 4.00

Wooden type letterpress

Letterpress printing was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th contrary and is a relief printing technique using wood or metal type. Learn the basic elements of typesetting and printing using an Adana 8x5 press and an antique Albion press. Suitable for beginners and those wishing to refresh their skills.

£90 including all materials

Thursday 24 & Friday 25 August 10.00 - 4.00

Introduction to Stone Lithography with Paul Croft RE TMP RCA

A comprehensive introduction to Stone Lithography. Translated literally, Lithography means ‘to write on stone’. Draw and paint directly onto a unique tactile drawing surface, allowing a huge range of marks and tones. Learn how to paint with water-tusche washes and explore the astonishing 'reticulated washes' peculiar to stone lithography. Use traditional approaches to mark making using lithography crayons, pencils, and ink.

£200 including use of 1 grained stone used (to remain the property of CPSC but may be kept for use in open access workshops).

Tuesday 22 & Wednesday 23 August 10.00 - 4.00

Photo Plate Lithography Masterclass with Dr Veronica Calarco

Photoplate lithography offers the option to use photographic images as well as drawn and can also be used to create colour plates for a key image created on a stone. Create a two/four colour image and experiment with different papers and colour ways. Suitable for artists who are beginners with this technique or those wishing to refresh their skills or are pushing their knowledge and practice further.

£215 for 2 days including all materials & 1 x photo litho plate