FAQs

Each printmaker taking part in the exchange pays £15 to their print group - the print group/workshop collects the entry fees and forwards to Hot Bed Press. There is no additional fee for the workshop.

In return each printmaker receives a box with 20 prints selected at random from all the submissions.              

You get to show off the skills of your members and build relationships with other workshops, based both in the UK and internationally.

The workshop itself will receive two boxes of prints - one twinned with another workshop (so containing prints from your own printmakers and an equal number from the twinned workshop) and the other randomly selected. it is your choice what to do with your boxes of prints. Here at Hot Bed Press we sell individual prints for £10 each.

Other workshops have sold on e-bay, Etsy and for charity events.  All this helps raise the profile of and/or money for print workshops.

The best workshop will receive a prize!

All traditional ‘hand-made’ printmaking methods are encouraged and welcomed.

Whilst Risograph prints are acceptable, work should not be a reproduction, photocopy or ‘Giclee’ print. 

The 20x20cm refers to the paper size. This is crucial.

Any smaller and they become tricky and time consuming to count when they are amongst other prints, and any larger and they risk not fitting in the boxes, and may become damaged in the process!

However, the image may be any size or shape on the paper, including ‘full bleed’. 

This should be a unique edition of 25 made especially for the Print Exchange.

Extra prints may be produced as an Artist Proof, to keep for yourself, as, artists will not receive one of their own prints back once submitted. 

It is important for sorting and in the distribution of all the prints that the edition is numbered (and ordered) 1/25, 2/25, 3/25 etc all the way up to 25/25.

We encourage use of good quality, printmaking paper, usually ranging from 90gsm to 320gsm, but lighter weight Japanese papers are also suitable.

It is also possible to print on fabric, but please bear in mind that prints should be able to fit into our boxes with 19 other prints, and therefore should not be too heavy or thick.

All going well, EARLY NOVEMBER.

The ‘BIG SORT’ process typically takes the whole month of October.

Our staff and volunteers work hard to check, sort and randomly select and pack over 16,000 prints into individual boxes. Once packaged, the boxes are sent out to each group/workshop for distribution to all artists taking part.

The deadline to send all prints to Hot Bed Press for sorting is 20 SEPTEMBER 2024

Any late arrivals or delivery of prints from groups will inevitably delay the whole sorting process. Equally, our job is made easier if all prints are completely dry, organised from 1 to 25; are NOT interleaved with tissue or glassine; and each print must have the artist's name, title, print method and workshop written clearly on the back in pencil (or a printed label).

YES!

The print numbered 1/25 is taken from every print edition submitted before sorting. This forms a whole collection which is displayed first at Hot Bed Press, and then sent to any group/studio or venue who has requested to become a host.

The exhibition can be hosted by any print group or studio participating in the exchange.

Please contact us for details if this is something you might be interested in.

We also show all prints submitted in the GALLERY section of this website.

For these reasons the print you number with 1/25 should be your best print to show you off in the best light - choose it carefully!

To put it simply, NO.

If you are an individual printmaker and would like to take part, you would need to join a print group/workshop or form your own group to take part.

Our exchange is unique in that it is only open to print groups, workshops, studios, universities and college printmaking departments.  

It’s all about supporting print communities and promoting printmaking across the globe!

We ask that workshops sign people up in multiples of five (so 5, 10, 15, 20 etc).

If your workshop is small or you are unable to muster five participants, you might broach the idea of someone entering twice - obviously it would be double the entry fee, but they’d get two boxes of prints in return!

Registration opens in MAY and you have until 28 JUNE 2024 to register and make payment to take part.

Take a look at our REGISTRATION page on this website to sign-up.

OR, CONTACT US for further information.

Imagine trying to explain our print exchange with the Birthday Paradox (Google it!) - it's a bit like that!

In a room with just 23 people, there's a 50-50 chance of at least two people sharing a birthday. With 30 people, it's almost a sure thing - and that's only 365 days!

At Hot Bed Press, we're not smart enough to calculate the odds of everyone in a studio/group receiving different prints when there are over 600 artists each submitting 25 versions of the same print. But we don't think they're very favourable!

In other words, while we do our best to ensure each box has 20 unique prints, it's physically impossible to guarantee that there won't be some overlap across the boxes a studio/group receives. It's not poor organisation, just maths!

Rest assured, during the Big Sort, we work hard to minimise this as much as possible.

Follow us on Instagram to discover more about how the big sort works - @2020printexchange