Elspeth Lamb

Description of the premises, with the hallway for hanging prints

Clip Title	Description of the premises, with the hallway for hanging prints
Interviewee Name	Elspeth Lamb
Interviewee Role	Early member of the Print Studio from St Vincent Crescent and worked as etching and lithography technician in the first location and Ingram Street.
Interviewer Name	Kerry Patterson
Interview Date	14 June 2018
Clip Length	2 minutes 44 seconds

Transcription

EL: I think on the right hand side there was the etching space and there was a – the Rochat press that’s here I think was one of the first presses. So that press was there and then there was kind of drawing areas where you just drew up and opposite that there was a, an offset lithography- the room had an offset lithography press because Sheena had done a lot of lithography and of course her husband ran the lithography department at Glasgow [School of Art], Michael Roschlau, although he never took anything to do with the workshop. He saw that very much as Sheena’s domain. And then through the back you kind of went along the hallway and through the back where, was the etching room, you know with just great big trays of [laughs] acid. I mean health and safety wasn’t as monitored as it is now let’s say! [laughing] And then downstairs erm, the sort of dungeon [laughs] it was very dark in the basement, was screen printing.

KP: So, it was a ground-floor flat with a basement, access to the basement?

EL: Yes, basement, yes, screen print was downstair. But I mean it was, it was pretty, it was basic but having said that y’know it was well used. And also I remember actually teaching groups of – first of all Bill Wright, who was the - how would you say - Cultural Coordinator equivalent, whatever it was called then, for I think it was East Dumbarton – he sent school kids there. Interestingly, one of those kids was Richard Wright, Turner Prize nominee [laughs]. I remember Richard he was a big gangly school boy in those days! So, I mean group – they would come on a Saturday and so I mean that was quite you know an innovative thing for those times, to bring in an educational element. And that was quite fun, y’know I would go down and teach them etching on a Saturday morning and then also I remember having a very challenging group from the Barrowfield area in the East End. You know, quite rough kids, we had to sort of fleece them every time they left, you know you’d find sort of scraper burnishers in their pockets and all this kind of stuff. But they made beautiful wee prints and I’ve got a funny feeling – I seem to have a vague memory of these being shown at the, what was then called the Third Eye Centre, the CCA. I think there was maybe a little group show of the children’s work. So they really, I think they really enjoyed it. Though they were quite wild. It was my first experience really, working with kids like that [laughs].