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Name: Amanda Faulkner
Date and Time:
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Receiving zinc plate
Today while I was in the lab I spent most of my time working on my copper plate for engraving. I did, however, receive a zinc plate. My zinc plate can be seen below.
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I also watched Ad Stijman’s demo of how to prepare a zinc plate for etching by putting ground on the plate. I had a conversation with Naomi about how to put ground on my plate without having to stand at the hood in the lab. We made a plan for me to use a hot plate from a seated position tomorrow to put ground on my plate.
Name: Amanda Faulkner
Date and Time:
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Putting ground on my plate and etching my plate
I arrived in the lab and set about polishing my zinc plate. I later found out that there was a plastic film on the side of the zinc plate that I polished, so I removed the plastic film and polished my plate again. Then I took a put my zinc plate on a baking pan on top of a hot plate. This allowed my plate to warm up without my having to stand and use the hot plate in the hood, which would have been hazardous. Instead, I was able to apply ground to my plate from a seated position. I applied ground to my zinc plate by touching a ball of black ground to my plate in several places and spreading the ground across my plate with feathers. An image of my plate with ground it (before the ground was spread) can be seen below.
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After I had applied ground to my zinc plate, I was informed that the ground I was using was softer than some of the ground that other students were using. I was curious as to whether this would impact my final etched print. Although I am no expert, I compared notes with another student who also used the softer ground and based on our observations I would say that the softer ground probably led to us both having less depth in the lines that we etched into the ground. The ground that I used on my plate is pictured below in its packaging.
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I spread this ground on my zinc plate using the feathers pictured below.
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Despite my best efforts, I spread the ground on my zinc plate somewhat unevenly. Dr. Stijnman advised me that this would lead to foul biting. My plate with the ground spread on it is pictured below.
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My next step was to actually etch my design. I decide to try to etch a butterfly shape. I wanted to create something simple that would not be ruined if my hand slipped or if I lost control of the etching needle. I also wanted to create something with both filled-in spaces and blank spaces, so I could observe varying depths of lines in my final etched work. Therefore, I opted to make my butterfly asymmetrical in design. My hands slipped and shook several times while etching the butterfly, but this did not ruin the design (as I had hoped it would not).
I created the butterfly mostly by tracing the pattern from a sheet of paper onto my etching ground. I placed the paper gently over the top of the etching ground and drew on the top of the paper, which etched into the ground. I was careful not to press too hard. The etching needle would have given me finer, more precise lines, but I found a pencil easier to control. Once I removed the paper from the plate for the first time to see how my design was coming along, I added in some parts of the design with the etching needle (particularly on the butterfly’s right wing). My completed design can be seen below.
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Name: Amanda Faulkner
Date and Time:
Location: Making and Knowing Lab
Subject: Submerging my plate in an acid bath, removing the ground, and beveling my plate
Today I worked on submerging my plate in the acid bath. After observing Dr. Stijnman’s demo, I put tape around the edges of my plate to protect the design from being bitten in the wrong places. As I did this, I realized that I had not fully centered my design on the plate. I tried not to tape over any parts of the design, but I was only somewhat successful in this regard. On the right side of the plate, small parts of the design were covered by tape. I affixed a tape “tab” to the back of my plate so that it could be held and dragged around while in the acid bath. The initial tab that I created was too short so I made another.
I had to request assistance from Sophie Pitman and Tillmann Taape when it came time to put my plate in the acid bath, since I would have been unable to stand at the hood and wipe the plate with a feather. I observed as my plate was placed in the acid bath (alongside several other plates that were also in the bath at the same time). Every few seconds, a feather was swept across the top of the plate to prevent sediment buildup. I am grateful to my TAs and my classmates for helping me with this step of the process. A picture of my plate in the acid bath can be seen below.
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I kept my plate in the acid bath for ten minutes before removing it. It was transferred to a tray full of water next to the tray full of acid. I was able to move the plate around in the tray full of water to clean it. I moved the plate around by pulling on the tape tab. An image of this process can be seen below.
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After this, I decided to re-submerge my plate in the acid bath for an additional six minutes. To do this, I repeated the steps above.
Next, I heated my plate over a hot plate until the ground began to melt. I did this from a seated position. I used tongs to hold the plate and had to be careful to hold it close to and above -- but not against -- the hot plate. I then wiped my plate with a paper towel. After a few minutes I was given oil to with which to wipe the plate. A photo of my gloved hands wiping the ground of the plate with oil and a paper towel can be seen below.
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I finished wiping the plate with another paper towel and then I took it to the sink to clean it off with soap and water. Then I patted it dry with a paper towel.
My next step was to bevel the edges of my plate in order to make them less sharp. I had some difficulty using the bevel at first, but my classmate Katie was kind enough to show me how to best use the bevel. She instructed me to cut the plate while keeping it cheated out (slightly turned). After a few minutes the process of using the bevel to cut the plate became much easier and I was able to get some good curls of zinc from the edges of my plate. Once I was satisfied that my plate was appropriately beveled, I moved on to sanding the edges of my plate with sandpaper.
An image of my hands beveling the zinc plate can be seen below.
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I sanded the corners of my plate using sandpaper in order to make them less sharp. I sanded each corner from the top, the bottom, and the side of the plate, turning the plate over in some cases in order to reach the desired corner from the desired angle. This process took about ten to twenty minutes.
Name: Amanda Faulkner
Date and Time:
Location: Printmaking Studio at Columbia Teacher’s College
Subject: Printing etched plate
When I arrived at the Printmaking Studio, I set about inking my zinc plate. An image of my plate before inking can be seen below.
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I was given a few dabs of sticky black ink, which I spread across the surface of my plate using a rectangular piece of cardboard. I moved the ink up and down but not side to side, per the instructions I was given.
Once my entire plate was covered with ink, I used a small cloth ball to press the ink into the plate. I tried buffing the plate in a circular motion. Dr. Stijnman advised me that this method would work better if I re-shaped my ball so that the bottom was larger and flatter. I did as he instructed which helped the process along considerably. After about seven minutes I moved on to the next step in the process: wiping the plate.
I wiped the plate using newsprint. I initially tried to cover the plate with newsprint and wipe my hand over it, but found that I had misunderstood the instructions I was given. Instead, Dr. Stijnman told me to fold up the newsprint into small squares and use one side to wipe the plate, using more force than I had previously been using. I switched to doing this.
I continued to wipe the plate with newsprint until almost no ink remained on the plate except for in the parts of the plate that would make the printed image. There were a few spots -- particularly in the bottom left corner -- that remained black. I figured that these were due to foul biting or a slip of the hand on my part and would not come out with further wiping. I told Dr. Stijnman I was ready to print my etched image.
Dr. Stijnman asked me if I preferred to use handmade paper or watercolor paper. I asked his advice as to which one to use and he suggested that I use the watercolor paper. Then he showed me how to make note of the texture of the watercolor paper, which should be damp, by pressing it against my cheek. Finally, he placed my plate face down on a sheet of watercolor paper and covered it with felt. He instructed me about how to roll the press correctly. Then I had a finished print, which can be seen below.
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Dr. Stijnman said that it was a good impression for a first attempt. There is evidence of foul biting and plate tone in my print, but it has the texture that I hoped it would have. I was able to see the varying depths of the lines I etched, just as I hoped I might. Overall, I was very satisfied with my final print.
My last steps were to clean my plate in the sink with soysolv oil, water, and soap. I applied a large drop of soysolv oil industrial cleaner first, wiped that around on my plate for a minute, and then added soap to my plate. I wiped the soap around on the plate and then rinsed the plate with a stream of water and dabbed it dry using paper towels.
Etching was definitely the printmaking medium that I enjoyed the most. I do not think it is a coincidence that it is also the printmaking activity that I was able to execute the most effectively. Whereas I had a great deal of difficulty gridding my woodblock, cutting my linocut, and engraving my copper plate, I was able to etch a design into the ground on my zinc plate. (You can read my field notes for those skill-building activities by following the links above.) I enjoyed creating the image and was excited (and admittedly somewhat relieved) that it turned out.
This process made me think a great deal about transferable skills. I struggled more with some mediums of printmaking than others, but some early modern artisans were adept at working with more than one medium. This was impressive to me before I started the printmaking process but it is even more impressive to me now.