Making an etching plate

Preparing And Etching A Copper Plate

This is one of the plates I'm working on at the moment. You may recognise the drawing from my earlier post of bird sketches. I decided I wanted to follow my drawing fairly closely so I photocopied it onto trace paper.

I then placed the plate of copper under the trace to figure out the position of the bird on the plate. This is needed for registration later on.

Recently I salvaged a lot of copper from the copper bin, nice big plates of it, already used but I can use the backs of them. BUT it takes a lot of cleaning! I bought an electric sander to get the worst of the marks off. Gradually using finer and finer grade sand paper. I then go onto wet and dry paper and sand by hand.
Finally, after much sanding, I use brasso and crocus powder to polish up the plate surface. The more polished the surface the whiter the background of your print. Any scratches will show up when you come to print so you have to be very careful.

I have to then degrease the plate in preparation for putting on the ground. I use a degreasing spray and whiting powder and work it into the plate with a rolled up old piece of felt blanket. You have degreased when water sits across the whole surface of the plate and doesn't creep in at the edges.

Now for the hot plate and the ground. Ground is a waxy substance you put on the plate which protects it from the acid. You draw into the ground and where you draw it exposes the copper so when you put it in the acid it eats only where you have made marks in the ground.

There are two sorts of ground, soft ground and hard ground. Soft ground is very sensitive, for example if you put your finger on a plate with soft ground it will leave your finger print, this will not happen with hard ground. Soft ground gives a soft etched line, it prints like a soft pencil mark whereas hard ground gives a very precise neat line, like a fine liner pen.

For this plate I have applied soft ground first. It helps me recreate my drawing as you will see, and gives a good variety of line in the final print.

Plate with applied soft ground

I now place the trace paper carefully on top of the plate and trace some of the lines.

I don't want to trace all the lines because the soft ground will just be a starter. The main lines will be done in hard ground.

Also I must mention that the back of the plate is protected with either stop out varnish or sticky back plastic so the acid doesn't eat into the back and exhaust itself.

I then place the plate into the acid bath. The acid is ferric chloride. Soft ground doesn't seem to take as long in the acid bath as hard ground, I left it in for 10 mins max.

Always keep an eye on the clock!

A bit of turps on the plate will take off the ground and I can see the soft ground lines etched into the plate.

I then want to apply my hard ground so the plate has to be degreased again and brought over to the hot plate.

Hard ground is much easier and nicer to apply than soft ground, it's also less stressful because it doesn't mark so easily!

Then, looking at my original drawing, I scratch the rest of the lines into the ground freehand with an etching needle.
Ready for the acid. This time I'll leave it in for longer, about 25 mins. The amount of time you leave a plate in the acid depends on a few things. How deep you want the etch, how old is the acid etc.

Again I use turps to clean off the ground to reveal the final etched plate.

Now the plate's edges need to be filed to a 45º angle. If you don't do this the square edges of the plate can cut into the paper and ruin your print. And finally I burnish the edges to give a really smooth finish and a clean edge to your print when you come to print.

In printmaking there are many ways to do things, this is just one example. It's like my mum always told me about cooking, there are many ways to come to the same result!

Soon I will show a step by step 'how to' about printing from the plate.

Field Notes

Field Notes produce a range of note books but they 
also sell stationary to go alongside the notebooks. All their
products can be sold separately and as part of a set.
They also have themed and limited edition sets which is 
something I could consider when producing my own stationery
range.
http://fieldnotesbrand.com/

Business Card Inspiration for Precious

After dissertation week I am going to get started with the Precious
brief, and they need the business cards done soon so that is gonna be 
my first focus.
The colour scheme is pink and gold so I have looked around at some
business cards and these are the types of things I want to do for Precious.
Looking at foiling, embossing and spot colour.

Indian Textile Design

After my crit feedback I realised I needed to look more into the context of my designs,
so I went to the library and got some book out on Indian patterns and textiles.
They have definitely given me some more ideas for patterns, colours and layouts for
my stationary range.
Also the last book about the Sari gave information on the use of elephants and the Kalga which I use a lot in my designs.

Henna Designs

Lots of my designs for my stationery range are based on indian henna
designs, so I have done some research into the different types of designs
and looked at some images for inspiration.

Precious Gems

For the Precious branding I am thinking about 
adding in the idea of a precious gem into the logo,
Precious have used gems in the past on their posters, it  
is imagery that fits with their name and identity so I am going
to look into including it somehow.

Dan Funderburgh

'Dan Funderburgh is a Brooklyn-based illustrator, artist, and wallpaper designer whose creations are rooted in the world of decorative arts.'
I came across this guy this weekend and I love his work, it is the type
of work I want to make. He applies his patterns to work, some client based
work, wallpaper design and some self directed work.
I especially liked his lazer cut work, this is something I want to look
into more this year, using different processes within my design work.

http://danfunderburgh.com/

Stationary Ranges

Open publication - Free publishing

Patterns

Open publication - Free publishing - More ideas

Looking at different patterns for inspiration for my surface pattern
brief. I think I am going to focus on geometry as my starting point
and work from there.
I am going to draw up some designs tonight and start printing
and applying to products tomorrow.

Stationary

Book Marks

Letter Sets

Files and Boxes

Notebooks

These are some samples of the type of stuff I want to make
for my surface pattern brief.
These are all products from the Paperchase website.

Past Tigerprint Briefs

I have looked at some of the past Tigerprint briefs which formed
the basis of my own surface pattern brief.
These are some of the examples of the competition briefs
they have had in the past.

Collage

Collage is something I have become more interested in
recently. I want to try and incorporate into some of my
briefs this year. 
The briefs I think it could work with is the recipe book
covers and the surface pattern design brief.
These are just some examples of artists work
which inspire me.

Clothbound Classics

Penguin released a series, Clothbound Classics, which 
are designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. 
They are hardback, bound with cloth and with foil stamped designs.
They are simple but so beautiful, the focus on one image
that features in the book and its use to make a pattern
is so well designed.

Leon Recipe Books

I love Leon Recipe Books, they are more than just recipe books,
they have information about ingredients and equipment and have 
lovely illustrations and images throughout.
They also have amazing restaurants, which work in
connection with their recipe books with the same images and 
themes.

Penguin Great Food Series

Penguin have published a range of cook books with unique
covers, they look at cooking from the past 400 years.
My plan is to do something similar but take their modern
but classic cook books and create a range of covers along 
with the promotional material that goes a long with it.

Past Penguin Design Award Covers

I have looked at some of the winning covers for the previous
Penguin Design Awards. They is a broad range of outcomes,
some which I really think work in relation to the books, others
I am not so keen on. But definitely giving me some inspiration
in the way I could take my brief.

Penguin Award Brief

I am basing my recipe book covers brief on the Penguin Award
brief. This is the information they have for their brief on the website,
they also give dimensions and logos. They are all things that I can 
use as a basis for my brief.

Precious

I thought a good starting point for the Precious brief was to look

 at the word Precious itself and explore its meaning,

pre·cious

  [presh-uh s]  Show IPA

adjective

1.

of high price or great value; very valuable or costly: preciousmetals.

2.

highly esteemed for some spiritual, nonmaterial, or moralquality: precious memories.

3.

dear; beloved: a precious child.

4.

affectedly or excessively delicate, refined, or nice: preciousmanners.

5.

flagrant; gross: a precious fool.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/precious?s=t

The Skeleton at the Feast

The Skeleton at the Feast-The Day of the Dead in Mexico.
Elizabeth Carmichael
Chloe Sayer
British Museum Press

Neon Cactus-Past Posters

These are past posters Neon Cactus have used to promote
their events in the past. I can use them as initial ideas
and the kind of information they put on their posters.