Etching

An etching is made by scraping through an acid resist covering which has been thinly placed onto a metal plate, exposing that part of the metals surface. The resist is usually removed with a hard metal tool.

The plate is carefully placed in a bath of acid and it is the acid which eats away the exposed areas. Those areas are now lower than the surface of the metal.

The plate is then cleaned of its resist ground and inked up by covering its whole surface with printing ink, making sure that the ink is sitting in all those etched areas. The plate is then wiped, removing all excess ink from the surface but retaining the ink in all the lower etched areas.

Next, the plate is put on a press with its inked image facing upwards. Dampened paper is laid on top. Felt blankets ae placed over the paper and all are squeezed between the rollers of the press. The pressure removes the ink from the plate and imprints the image onto the printmaking paper.