Jenny Mason-Gunning

Master Printmaker | Artist | Author | Printmaking Specialist | Designer | Co-Owner of Ironbridge Fine Arts & Printmakers

Printmaking has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

I grew up surrounded by it. My father, Dave Gunning, was a lifelong printmaker, engineer and press designer, while my mother was an art teacher. Dad taught me to draw, paint and print from a very early age, and by seven I had made my first aquatint etching — a whale. I can still remember lifting the paper from the plate and seeing that image appear for the first time.

I was completely hooked.

But when I finished my first Fine Art degree, Dad absolutely would not give me a job.

So I carried on doing exactly what I had already begun at university: building my own professional practice as an artist and printmaker. I made work, exhibited, took commissions, taught and gradually built a business around what I loved doing. At first I worked from the top of my garden, then from a tiny gallery, before eventually growing into what is now Ironbridge Fine Arts & Printmakers in Ironbridge, Shropshire.

Today I am a practising printmaker, artist, author and printmaking specialist, as well as founder and co-owner of the gallery, professional printmaking studio and manufacturing business.

My own studio practice remains at the heart of everything.

I work across traditional and contemporary processes including etching, aquatint, drypoint, mezzotint, photogravure, collagraph, carborundum, linocut, relief printing, monotype, photopolymer and letterpress.

My artwork is particularly inspired by ancient standing stones and abandoned industrial spaces — forgotten factories, machinery and architecture slowly being reclaimed by nature. I am fascinated by the histories held within these places and the strange beauty that appears when people leave and nature begins to return.

Alongside my own work, I undertake specialist commissions for artists, collectors, galleries and publishers, making and developing plates, proofing images and editioning prints.

A huge part of my career has also grown from asking one question:

Can we make this work better?

Over the years I have developed and refined printmaking techniques, registration systems, specialist pins and tabs, inking methods, pressure systems and approaches to printing relief work on etching presses.

I have also helped develop our own specialist printmaking materials, including intaglio and relief inks, grounds, resists, cleaners, nitrile rollers and other studio equipment.

I am constantly testing — inks, rollers, papers, blankets, plate materials, exposure times and pressure — because sometimes the smallest technical change completely transforms a print.

That experimentation feeds directly into the manufacturing side of our business.

Our Gunning Etching Presses began with my father in the 1980s. Today my husband, Dave Mason-Gunning, an engineer, printmaker and press designer, continues that work with me here in Ironbridge.

Together we design, develop and manufacture presses ranging from compact portable machines to large professional studio presses, including direct-drive, geared, motorised and bespoke models.

What makes my relationship with the presses unusual is that I use them every day.

I proof on them. I edition on them. I teach on them. I experiment on them. I find problems, work out improvements and feed those discoveries directly back into their design and manufacture.

They are now used by individual printmakers, professional artists, schools, universities and studios around the world.

Teaching is another enormous part of what I do.

I work with complete beginners, experienced artists, professional printmakers and educational organisations, teaching both processes and the technical understanding behind them.

I have never been satisfied with simply saying, “This is how you do it.”

I want to understand why something works — what is happening between the plate, ink, paper, blankets, pressure and press — because once a printmaker understands that, they can begin making their own decisions.

I also give demonstrations and talks, judge exhibitions and print competitions, support and sponsor printmaking events, and create films, articles and technical resources to share specialist knowledge more widely.

That approach became the foundation of my first book, Printmaking: A Step-by-Step Studio Guide, published by Bloomsbury in 2026.

The book brings together decades of studio experience, experimentation and technical research. I wanted it to be the kind of book I would want beside me in a working studio — not something that simply introduces a process, but something that genuinely explains how to do it, from the foundations through to specialist techniques.

Despite everything that has grown around my work — commissions, teaching, writing, product development, manufacturing and running the business — I still think of myself first and foremost as a maker.

I love the physicality of printmaking.

Cutting a plate. Scratching a line. Rolling ink. Wiping copper. Soaking paper. Turning the press.

And then that moment every printmaker knows: lifting the paper and discovering what happened.

That still excites me now as much as it did when I made my first aquatint as a child.

Everything I do comes back to the same three things:

A fascination with printmaking.
A desire to understand it.
And a determination to keep making it better.

For me, printmaking is not simply a technique or a profession.

It is my life’s work — and I am nowhere near finished yet.