Table of Contents
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Name: Amanda Faulkner
Date and Time:
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Receiving and polishing my copper plate
Today I received my copper plate and set about polishing it. I polished the copper plate using paper towels and the polish that was made available in the lab. I wore gloves for this procedure. I did not have any particular strategy when it came to polishing the copper, but I thought of it as similar to the process of polishing shoes or silverware. We were instructed to polish until we could see our eyelashes reflected in the plate. After a few minutes of polishing, I could see my eyelashes but not very clearly. This led me to polish my plate a second time. After two rounds of polishing I continued to scrub at my plate with paper, but this time without using any polish, in an attempt to get the plate as clean as possible.
Below is an image of my copper plate in its packaging:
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Name: Amanda Faulkner
Date and Time:
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Attempting to engrave my plate
After working for a while on polishing my zinc plate for etching when I first arrived in the lab, I began to work on engraving my plate. Ad Stijnman showed a group of students how to draw a grid on our copper plates using a ruler and a sharper marker and then gently scratch that grid into the plate. I had some difficulty keeping my hands steady while I did this but I was able to complete this task successfully. I had considerable difficulty, however, with the rest of the process of engraving. I found that I could not hold the burin or the gauge correctly. In particular, I was unable to maintain control over my fingers as I attempted to grip and move the burin. Dr. Stijnman demonstrated to me several times the correct way to hold my burin but I was unable to follow his example, which involved using the heels of my palm to balance and guide the burin. I tried flipping the tool over and using both hands to guide it, moving it with my right hand and pressing on it with my left. I had little success. I was able to make a number of marks in the upper corner of my plate, but they did not resemble the design that we had initially set out to make. After about a half an hour of practice and trial and error, I was able to get a few shreds of copper from my plate, but I never got the “curls” that we were trying for.
The method that I found to be the most successful in attempting to engrave the plate involved gripping the burin lightly with my fingers and pressing it into the plate while lifting slightly upward with the back of my hand. A video of my hands completing this method can be seen here.
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| This is a video of my hands engraving a copper plate. It can be watched on Flickr by following the link above. I was instructed not to attempt to embed my video directly into my field notes on Google Drive. |
I continued trying to engrave lines of varying lengths and depths with mixed success. After doing this for a while I decided to rest my hands. In the end, my design was not very complex and not very uniform. I did, however, learn a great deal about the difficulty, delicacy, and complexity of the craft of engraving.
Name: Amanda Faulkner
Date and Time:
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Observing My Copper Plate
Today while I was in the lab I mostly concentrated on preparing my zinc plate for etching, but I did take a photograph of my copper plate and the design on the plate that I will attempt to print. It can be seen below. (My etching field notes can be accessed by following this link.)
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Name: Amanda Faulkner
Date and Time:
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Completing my Engraving Design
Today I continued to try and work on my engraving design. I attempted to engrave a circle next to the lines on my plate. I had some success -- something did make it onto the plate -- but it did not much resemble a circle. The plate can be seen below:
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I also sanded my copper plate using sandpaper to remove some of the rough burrs. Because the design on my plate is small and limited, it did not take much to make the plate smooth. Later, I used a little bit of water to help me buff my plate.
Name: Amanda Faulkner, Naomi Rosenthal
Date and Time:
Location: Teacher’s College Printmaking Studio
Subject: Printing my plate
Today, after printing my etched zinc plate, I began working on my copper engraved plate. I started by beveling the plate. I was told that beveling copper would be easier than beveling zinc because copper is a softer material, but I found it easier to work with zinc because zinc gave me a little bit more resistance. I did eventually get the long curly wires of copper cut away from my plate. I had to be reminded to tilt my plate out at an angle to make it easier to bevel. Once I began doing this the process of beveling became much easier.
After I beveled my plate I sanded the corner using a large sanding tool. I used the tool to sand the edges of the plate from several different angles. I approached each corner from the top, the bottom, and the side. After about ten or fifteen minutes of doing this I asked Naomi to help me finish sanding the edges. Then I used sandpaper to put the finishing touches on my plate.
My next steps were to ink and print my plate. Inking my copper plate went much faster than inking my zinc plate because I knew what I was doing this time. I used a piece of cardboard to spread sticky black ink all over my plate. Then, I pressed the ink into the plate using a balled-up paper towel, since I could not find the cloth I had used earlier to press ink into my zinc plate.
Next, I used newsprint paper to wipe my plate, trying to clean the plate of the ink that would not be used in the design. A photo of the wiping process can be seen below.
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Once my plate was sufficiently clean (but still retained ink in the necessary places), I was ready to print it using a roller press. A photo of my inked plate can be seen below.
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I printed my plate on regular watercolor paper using the felt that was made immediately available to me by Ad Stijnman. Dr. Stijnman set my plate on the press face down on a sheet of watercolor paper. He covered the plate and the paper with felt and instructed me to roll the press. It only took a few moments to actually print the plate, which was surprising to me given how much work went into actually creating the plate.
My print came out more or less as I expected. It was not exceedingly detailed but I was able to see varying depths of my lines. I had a good deal of plate tone in my print. I had hoped that I would see some plate tone, since there was very little to my design otherwise. Dr. Stijnman said that it was as decent an impression as I could have hoped for with such a plate.
My completed engraved print can be seen below.
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My final steps were to clean my plate using soysolv industrial cleaner, soap, and water in the sink. I used a few drops of soysolv, spread it around on my plate, and waited a minute before adding soap. Then I spread soap around on my plate and rinsed the plate gently using tap water. I dabbed my plate dry with a paper towel. Then I disposed of my gloves and the remaining materials in my workspace -- mostly discarded gloves, newspaper, and newsprint.
I think that engraving was the medium that I had the most difficulty with when it came to printmaking. In the end, I found myself practically unable to engrave a plate. I still got a great deal out of making a print, mostly because I was able to engage in the process of going through the different steps to make a print. I found that engraving was not just engraving -- it was polishing a plate, engraving a plate, beveling a plate, sanding a plate, inking a plate, etc. I was able to successfully complete many of those steps, but being unable to actually engrave made things difficult. This prompted me to reflect upon how the process of production is made up of many steps, and while none of the steps are the be all and end all of the process, each is integral. (This was something that I also considered while gridding a design on my woodblock. My woodcut field notes can be accessed by following this link.)