#electro etching

These are the prints that I got done with my second plate today! I was really happy with how the designs themselves came out because I think I achieved a good level of detail and expressed the patterns found in rocks well!

The first print (black and white) was a proof to see how the plate would come out and even though a section wasn't submerged properly in the tank during the electro etching process, it still worked very well!

However, for the second print, I accidentally misplaced the block when I was printing on top of the coloured square! This is something that I really need to stop doing, but I plan to mark out the areas I'll put my plates more accurately before I start the prints.

After my failed attempts on Tuesday, I decided to print my first plate again to get some proper proofs done. This time, I used the press in the printing studio with oil based ink, and I found that the results turned out a lot better! For the first print I left a bit of ink in the sea area to see if it would look like water, but I think I left a little too much. For the second print, I focused on getting a really clean plate just to see whether I preferred the clean or slightly blurred effect.

I then decided to start playing around with colour. I got a piece of acetate the same size of the etching plate and traced the main aspects of the design with a sharpie. I then flipped it, and inked up the section of the print I wanted coloured with blue ink and a roller. I then printed the blue acetate onto a sheet of wet paper (for better embossment of details) and then printed the primary place over it in black. I secured the paper in the press to ensure I was printing in the same place.

In between making prints today, I finished etching my second plate and began to look towards electro etching it. I was really happy with how the engraving turned out as I was able to include lots of detail and I felt like it conveyed movement very well through shape and pattern.

I put the plate in the tank and left it for about 30 minutes, but unfortunately I made a mistake and didn't notice that all of the plate wasn't submerged in the solution. As a result, a small strip of metal was exposed to the electromagnetic force, meaning a small section of my design was lost. Luckily, this didn't impact the overall result too much, but it's something I'll definitely keep an eye on when I'm etching in the future!

The first thing I did this morning was prepare a second etching plate! I decided to look towards rocks for this design since I'd already done prints focusing on movement in seashells and the sea! I really like the amount of detail in this design and even though it will be time consuming I think it will be worth it!

Later on, I used the electro etching equipment on my first plate, and once it was ready I cleaned the wax off using white spirits! I then got ready to do my first prints.

Here are the two proofs I made of the print, and honestly I wasn't very happy with them. In the first one, I must have made a mistake applying the ink because the seaweed didn't show up at all. In the second one, the newsprint above the paper got crumpled and ended up ruining the design. I was pretty disappointed with the results, although parts of both designs did show up nicely, for example on the shell in the first print.

Printmaking-Etching

I definitely thought overall this was going to take a long time to do especially since it was an intricate design and since I haven’t done this before but I was surprised at how quickly and effortlessly it came together. This whole process overall has been very satisfying and very therapeutic almost, I have been enjoying it a lot. I have done monoprint and dry point etching before but this was a very different but a process I deeply enjoyed and sounded much nicer.