Process of applying etching ground to zinc plate
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Name: Olivia Branscum
Date and Time:
Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Etching
Materials:
1 zinc plate, 4x6” (Making & Knowing Lab)
Goddard’s Brass & Copper Polish (Making & Knowing Lab)
Newsprint (Making & Knowing Lab)
Newspaper (Making & Knowing Lab)
Acetic acid (M&K)
Hard etching ground (M&K)
Feather (M&K)
Clamp (M&K)
Drypoint needle (M&K)
~10% acid bath solution (M&K; see here)
Vegetable oil (M&K)
Dish soap (M&K)
Black printmaking ink (M&K)
Scraper (M&K)
Microfiber cloth (M&K)
1200-grade sandpaper (M&K)
Today, I began to prep my zinc plate for etching by polishing it in the lab. The procedure for polishing zinc plates is the same as for copper; this time, however, I only polished one side of the plate (the other side is covered with a protective acid-resistant vinyl). I had to leave to go to class shortly after finishing up my polishing. I’ll learn how to engrave from Ad Stijnman tomorrow!
Name: Olivia Branscum
Date and Time:
Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Etching
Today, I applied etching ground to my zinc plate after working on my engraving skills with Ad. I packed up my copper plate, checked out a burin, and grabbed my polished zinc plate to begin to apply the ground. I took photos for Nancy; Min took photos for me.
Ad described the process of applying ground, which involved cleaning the plate with acetone and heating it over a hot plate until the zinc was hot enough to melt the solid etching ground. I was the last to apply ground to my plate, and chose to use regular etching ground instead of beeswax. I had a bit of trouble getting the plate at the right height and angle relative to the hot plate, but once I did, it was no trouble to keep it there until it got hot enough to apply the ground. At first, I tried applying the ground a bit too early; it created some sticky raised areas on the plate. I waited a moment longer, and then began melting the ground onto the plate once the zinc began to smoke. I went ‘against the grain’ of the plate at first, but Ad told me it would be harder to spread the ground evenly that way, so I tried to switch my approach with some success. Once I had spread the ground around the plate relatively evenly, I used a feather to improve the distribution, then moved the plate off of the hot plate, released the clamp, and used the feather and the ground itself to add more coverage to areas that lacked ground. I made the decision to apply the ground rather thickly after hearing Ad describe our options; I wanted to avoid foul biting as much as possible. When I was fairly satisfied with the distribution of ground on my plate, I allowed the plate to dry, then packed it up to bring home to prep for etching the following Monday.
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Process of applying etching ground to zinc plate |
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Applying ground |
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Applying ground |
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Dry zinc plate with layer of etching ground |
Name: Olivia Branscum
Date and Time:
Location: 530 Riverside Drive, Apt 3c
Subject: Etching
This evening, I scratched my design onto my plate. I’ve been interested in florals lately, and decided to model my design loosely off of a Liberty of London fabric pattern. I chose this because of the free play of line introduced by using a drypoint needle on etching ground; I felt I would be able to use the needle flexibly and draw anything that was within my technical grasp.
The design prep stage was fun, but time-consuming. I became preoccupied with thinking about how to create depth and tone in the design; I ended up trying to vary the thickness of outlines depending on the objects they were defining, and to add texture and dimension such as small lines/dots or curvy lines within flower petals. While it was quite easy and fun to apply the design as compared to engraving, I noticed that in some places, the rough texture of my ground made it difficult to make strong marks on the plate. I’ll return to this point later, as I think it affected the impression I was able to achieve from the plate.
I chose to apply my design to the entire plate as a reference to fabric surface decoration. After completing my pattern, I wrapped the plate in newsprint and prepared to bring it to class the next Monday.
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Sketched drypoint design |
Name: Olivia Branscum
Date and Time:
Location: Chandler 260
Subject: Etching/intaglio printmaking
Time to etch! Since my plate was ready to go – and, I thought, pretty cool-looking – I jumped at the chance to try biting my plate in the first group. To make this possible, I had to tape the edges of the plate and attach a tape ‘pull tab’ to the plate’s side. I did this very carefully, so as not to cover up any more parts of the design than was necessary.
I then observed as Ad demonstrated how to bite the plates, use a feather to release ground and copper sediment, and rinse them before checking the depth of the etching lines with the tip of a drypoint needle.
First bath:
For my plate’s first bath, I decided to try biting for five minutes. Ad suggested this as a baseline time for people who wanted to avoid overly deep lines in their plates. I noticed that my lines seemed a bit fainter than those of some of the other students, so I thought I might need to add my plate in for an additional bite. I didn’t want to go too far, however, and as a result decided to start out with a five minute acid bath.
After five minutes of ‘feathering’ the plate approximately every 30 seconds, I pulled the plate out of the bath and rinsed it under cool water. Then, I checked the depth of the grooves with my drypoint needle; it seemed like my etching was rather weak. Ad agreed that it was hard to tell how much etching had really taken place. I decided to go for a second acid bath, this time for a total of 7 minutes.
Second bath:
When I attempted this bath, I assumed it would be my last opportunity to etch the plate properly. I was extremely careful to feather the plate without damaging it, and took great care throughout the process. After removing my plate from the bath, I checked the grooves again. They were certainly deeper! For a while, I worked over some of the lines with my drypoint needle very gently just to make sure they had etched through. Some of my classmates were beginning to remove their ground and clean the plates, and I almost joined them; however, I decided to give the plate one more shorter bath. I’m not sure why – I just had a feeling that the extra time would be helpful.
Third bath:
Since there was room in the acid tray, I gently slid my plate into the bath. This time, I allowed the acid to bite the plate for three minutes. This means that my plate was in the bath for a total of 15 minutes. I continued to feather and rinse my plate as instructed. Then, before removing the ground, I showed the plate to Ad and looked at it through his magnifying glass. He was quite happy with the plate and remarked on what the acid had been allowed to do. I felt good about the fact that I had chosen to bathe my plate in the acid for a bit longer.
It was then time to remove the ground from my plate. Since I had applied a somewhat heavy layer of ground to the plate in the first place, this took a fair amount of time. I had to heat the ground over the hot plate, wipe it off with vegetable oil, and then use soap and water to remove the last lingering traces of the ground. When I was finished, I was able to see each line of my design very clearly. I couldn’t wait to see what an impression would yield, but first, I had to bevel the edges of my plate and sand down the corners.
It took me quite a while to get the hang of using the scraper to bevel the edges of the zinc plate, but I did eventually figure it out. Once I had the hang of the technique, it only took a few minutes to get the edges into good shape. I then used sandpaper to sand the corners of the plate.
Once this step was complete, I packed up the zinc plate and prepared to bring it with me to the Teacher’s College printmaking studio the following day.
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Sketched plate with tape before the acid bath |
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Feathering in acid solution; biting the plate |
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Removing ground |
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Clean plate |
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Close-up of grooves and beveled edges/corners |
Name: Olivia Branscum
Date and Time:
Location: Teacher’s College Printmaker’s Workshop
Subject: Etching - printing!
When I got to the print studio, I promptly decided to focus the most attention on my etching plate. I inked, wiped, and prepped the plate (see link to engraving field notes for details of process) and ran my plate through the intaglio press. I chose to use the watercolor paper because I had become attached to my plate, and wanted to secure the best possible chance of getting a nice impression from it. The impression was quite good, but showed a bit of what I thought was uneven wiping. I decided to print the plate once more before heading to class in order to test this hypothesis.
After printing the plate a second time, taking extra care not to focus too much on any one area of the plate during the ink wiping process, I noticed a similar pattern of lighter and darker areas persisted. Ad and I then concluded that the depths/pressure of my initial marks in the ground must have varied, resulting in etched grooves of varying depths. I recalled that the areas which were a bit lighter mapped on to the parts of the plate where the ground had been applied choppily and somewhat roughly. My current working hypothesis turns on this fact. If I get to attempt another etching plate, I’ll try my best to make sure the ground is distributed evenly before allowing it to dry. All the same, I think the impressions turned out quite well! I’m very happy with them.
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A scene at the print shop |
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My first intaglio impression |
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My second intaglio impression |
