Explore the intersection of folk printmaking and contemporary UV-sensitive photopolymer printing techniques.

Edinburgh Photopolymer Workshop 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Explore the unexpected dialogue between two folk printmaking traditions — the woodblock imagery of prints and the bold, narrative visual culture of Scottish broadsheets and Highland folk art.

This workshop draws inspiration from both traditions: the symbolic storytelling of woodblock prints, and the graphic strength found in Scotland's own history of hand-printed ballads, clan imagery, and decorative folk motifs. Participants will design their own image — drawing freely from either tradition, or finding something entirely in between — and transform it into a photopolymer relief printing plate using UV exposure technology.

The result is a hand-printed edition you take home: tactile, layered, and made entirely by your own hands.

Unlike photographic processes such as cyanotype, this workshop is rooted in relief printmaking — where light is used to build a printable surface, not to capture an image. The process is closer in spirit to the ancient woodblock than to the darkroom.

Workshop Process

Introduction to woodblock traditions print culture

Design development and composition — drawing from symbolic, narrative, or decorative imagery

UV exposure of photopolymer resin plate

Washing and developing the printing plate

Hand-printing your edition

Two traditions, one plate, printed by hand in Edinburgh. 🖨️

Description supplied by the event organiser.