2010 Traditional Printmaking with Belinda Casey

Etching is a method of making prints from a metal plate which has been bitten with acid. In this workshop you will first coat the plate with an acid-resistant substance and draw into the surface using a sharp needle. The acid eats the plate through the exposed lines; the more time the plate is left in the acid, the coarser the lines. When the plate is inked and its surface rubbed clean, the ink captured in the lines is transferred to the paper.

• Lunch
• Linear Drawings

Itinerary:

1. Prepare copper plates by cleaning and burnishing edges
2. Apply acid-resist hard ground
3. Draw into ground
4. Prepare plate for acid bath by covering the back with contact paper or stop-out
5. Etch plates
6. Apply stop-out to areas and re-etch to make some lines darker
7. Remove stop-out and hard ground
8. Clean plate for printing
9. Proper printing techniques, applying ink, wiping, cleaning edges, press guidelines
10. Proper drying and storage techniques

Additional Techniques:

• Aquatint: how to add tone to your linear drawings
• Chine colle: how to add ornate papers to your prints during the printing process