A coupla prints

Here are a coupla recent prints, for your viewing. You needn't feel impelled to pick any of these. Etching--I clean and polish a copper plate, then cover it with a ground, which is something like black wax. I scrape a picture through the ground, not scraping the copper, but just exposing it. I put the copper plate in the "acid" for an hour, so that the lines are eaten into the metal. I remove it, clean the ground off the plate, rub ink across the plate so that it gets into the etched lines and clean all the rest of the ink off the plate. I place a piece of soaked printing paper atop the plate, cover it with three felt blankets, and put it through a press at 600 lbs/square inch. The blankets and the damp paper allow the paper to be pushed into the inked lines. This is "intaglio" printing where the ink matrix is below the plate surface, as opposed to relief printing such as a woodcut, where the inked portion is raised. The plate must be inked separately for each printing, and this might take 10 minutes for a small plate or an hour for a 12 X 18 inch plate. I use an Italian paper Fabriano Tiepolo with a particular blue black ink which I mix. Aquatint--Etching produces primarily lines. To produce a little more texture, I use aquatint. This covers the etched plate with a fine powder, made of resin. This is heat-fused on top of the already-etched plate (with a blow torch), so that it is covered with a whole bunch of microscopic dots. If I want a white portion, I mask this part of the plate. I put it back into the acid, and it etches the little dots. I mask a little more and put it back in, getting a darker and darker texture with each etching. Chine colle--To add another quality, I add a thin piece of paper, like tissue paper, with some glue. The dampness of the white paper and the pressure of the press attaches this to the print. Chine colle literally means Chinese or Asian glued-on, like collage. So it means a glued-on piece of Asian paper. It doesn't have to be Asian paper, but I use a Japanese mulberry paper called kittakatta. Pine cone--etching--image 1 1/2 X 2 3/4 Rhinos--etching with aquatint-- 1 1/2 X 2 1/2 Trees--etching with chine colle--4 X 6 Trees--etching with chine colle--4 X 6 Houses--etching--8 X 10 Russian wooden houses--etching with chine colle--8 X 10 Backyard rabbit--etching with chine colle--5 X 7 Buggin'--etching--1/2 X 5 Porkers--etching with aquatint--2 X 4 Tall trees--etching with chine colle--4 X 8 Forsythia--etching--1 X 5

Ten prints here