Printmaking studio · Krakow · since 2014
Press time, etching and relief, by the hour or the weekend.
etching from45 zł/ hour
All prices in złoty
Price list
Press time starts with one 90-minute induction; here is what the induction covers. Courses run on fixed weekends and Tuesday evenings, so check the course dates before you write. Everything is booked by email to hello@vruatrix.com and paid by bank transfer in advance or by card at the studio.
Press time
- Induction180 złOnce only, 90 minutes
- Large etching press45 zł/h80 x 140 cm bed · 2 hour minimum
- Etching press, half day150 zł4 hours on either etching press
- Etching press, full day260 zł10:00-18:00
- Relief or hand press35 zł/hCylinder proofing press or the cast-iron hand press
- Key-holder month420 zł16 hours, Sunday access, a plan-chest drawer
- Aquatint box session30 złRosin dusting for tone, per session
- Ferric bath and hard groundincludedWater-washable ground, with any press booking
Courses
- Intro to Etching weekend690 złSat and Sun 10:00-17:00 · two copper plates and paper included
- Linocut Evenings520 złFour Tuesdays 18:00-21:00 · blocks, ink and paper included
- Drypoint in a Day340 złSaturday 10:00-17:00 · drypoint on copper
- One-to-one tuition160 zł/hIn blocks of two hours or more
Services and materials
- Editioning, proofing fee220 złTwo proofs included
- Editioning, A5 etchingfrom 38 złPer print · editions of 10-100
- Edition posting35 złWithin Poland, flat-packed between card
- Off-site relief workshop1,900 złHalf day · 8-12 people · within 40 km · press and travel included
- Copper plate, A558 zł1.2 mm, bevelled
- Copper plate, A4108 zł1.2 mm, bevelled
- Cotton etching paper224 zł300 gsm · 56 x 76 cm sheet
1The induction fee comes off your first half day, so your first four hours on an etching press cost 70 zł.
2Paper is sold at what we pay for it, by the whole sheet, with nothing added on top.
How a first visit goes
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Step 1Write to us
Send a few lines to hello@vruatrix.com saying what you print, which press you have in mind and roughly when. The contact page lists the four things to put in, so we can answer in one reply, usually the same working day.
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Step 2Come for an induction
Ninety minutes, once, before your first booking: press pressure, blanket order, the ferric bath, the grounds, the aquatint box and cleaning down. It costs 80 zł. Experienced printmakers do it too, because every press has its own pressure and every studio its own order of things.
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Step 3Book a half day
Four hours on an etching press for 150 zł, with the induction fee taken off the first time. Book by email at least 48 hours ahead, or ask before 10:00 on the day if a press is free. The last 20 minutes of every booking are for cleaning down the bed, the rollers and the slab.
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Step 4Keep a drawer if you return
If you find yourself here most weeks, the key-holder month at 420 zł gives you 16 hours of press time, Sunday afternoons in a quiet studio and a plan-chest drawer for plates and paper. Read how the key-holder month works before you sign up.
The autumn term
Three courses each autumn term, six places on each, and every one of them ends with prints you carry home under your arm.
When they run · every autumn
See the full autumn term, with every date through December, the deposit terms and one-to-one tuition.
About the studio
Zofia opened Vruatrix in 2014 in a former bookbinder's workroom in Krakow, with one secondhand etching press and a ferric chloride tank she built herself. That press is still the large one, 80 by 140 centimetres of bed under a spoked capstan wheel. A second, smaller etching press joined it in 2019, and in 2021 the relief room opened with a cylinder proofing press and a cast-iron hand press from the 1890s, which makes four presses in two rooms. Courses have run every term since that first autumn, and the copper is still etched in ferric chloride with water-washable grounds, never in nitric. Read how the studio grew, or the short list of what we will not print before you write about an edition.