Shell - Plexiglass Drypoint

Here is my first attempt ever to use plexiglass as the plate medium for intaglio. I haven't finished printing this little edition yet. The plexi was really inexpensive, I got a big sheet at a hardware store and cut it to size.

Details:

• 5x7 inch plate
• Arches cover paper
• Daniel Smith inks & modifier

Fun to sit out on the deck and do, one good thing about plexi is that you can take it anywhere to work on it really.

Spring!

Another spring with flowers, leaves and beaches! It is about 70 degrees and sunny today, a record breaking spring day! I don't do many flower images but here are two clay relief etchings, "Tulip" and "Iris", to herald the new season. (I am creativly challenged when it comes to naming my work.) These are printed a la poupee, the plates are colored with ink prior to printing. This technique is a bit more challenging that coloring after printing when you can "color in the lines".

New WIP - Intaglio Snail Print

I finally created enough of a hole in the mess in my art room to use the table and press. AND I actually went in and played, I talked myself into a 15 minute session and it expanded to a little bit more.

The intaglio snail print I worked on is a WIP, not finished yet. The lines in this are very fine so I need to play with the ink a bit more to get it just right. Ink used was Graphic Chemical oil-based "mud" old ink scrapings tossed into a big jar and mixed. I cover with water to store so no hard dried surface scum forms.

If you note the clips, my EZ-no-space drying system consists of 3 long curtain rods that are on the wall. I can put small pieces like this on one clip, or hold large pieces with multiple clips.

Intaglio Etchings - FeCl & Cu Plates

The question of wiping plates came up on WetCanvas so I was thinking about intaglio plates. I have, over the past few years, been trying to do some intaglio etchings using ferric chloride solutions and copper plates rather than the old nitric acid method with zinc that I used in college. I have had some success but I find ferric chloride more difficult to get going, the solution bites so slowly plus with the formation of bubbles on the plate you have to have the plate upside down and I haven't worked out a good way to do that. I have tried to speed the process up using Edinburgh Etch solution, but my EE solution didn't work well - it didn't seem to bite deeply into the plates. I hear I must add some copper to the solution to kickstart the EE solution, but my FeCl had already been used so it should have had copper in it. The print shown is a proof using FeCl and hard ground/line etch as well as an aquatint etch, printed using oil based ink. I made this in 2005, you think I should get to printing the edition soon? I guess I have been distracted! If you read this and have any pointers on the FeCl bite issue, please leave a comment. I had a little trouble with paragraph spacing. The Preview is different than the edit and the BLOG is different then either although I save edits so please excuse until I figure this out. Thanks. blr