August 14, 2017

This etching was drawn at Lino Saffioti's studio in Albuquerque, and printed at Remarque Print Workshop in the afternoon:

Proof made

without removing the BIG grounds

Prediction --

The etched plate was photographed with the ground on,

then Flipped Horizontally in Photoshop,

then Inverted in Photoshop,

to see what the final etching might look like

This etching was made with the new BIG ground, which is only available in the US at Takach Press in Albuquerque:

How to use BIG grounds

The copper plate was coated with this new BIG grounds, bought at Takach Press in Albuquerque.  We did this yesterday, at the copper etching workshop at Remarque Print Workshop:

Drawn first in white

with a water soluble Stablio marker

I could not get the grounds off, but we didn't have any Brasso to use either.

Update (August 21):  I had a hard time getting the BIG ground off with Brasso.  Even when I let the Brasso sit, I still had to scrub hard to get the ground off the plate.  I think this is because it smoked when we heated it on the hot plate.  I think we cooked it too long.

Ultimately almost all the ground came off with Brasso,

expect some stubborn spots.

I did not print the plate afterwards

Also I made my own etching tool with a sewing needle. I inserted the needle into a lead holder, and then strapped scotch tape around the outside of the needle and the lead holder, to make it more stable. I wanted to make a fine line, with a flexible instrument. A test scratch on the black BIG grounds revealed a fine copper line, so the needle should work just fine. However, I did not etch that line.

Eric recommended a "ribbon spring steel" wire (steel with a memory), when I mentioned that I wanted a flexible hard etching instrument, something like a dip pen.



Update (August 26):

Eric and I discovered that "Contractors Solvent," a orange based solvent, removed the grounds.  At least it did on the test corner we tried at Argos Gallery in Santa Fe.