So here is the next step in Intaglio.
After having engraved the
hard ground, you need to etch the copper. We used
50/50 ferric chloride, I put my plate in for 35/40 minutes and got it slightly over etched.
The difficult part with Intaglio is remembering to wear all the protection. You have to take it off each time you handle clean things like paper and presses, but you must have the gloves and respirator when washing off the
hard ground with
varsol * and handling the
ferric chloride.
Here is the etched and cleaned plate, ready for ink printing.
We made a blank print, which consists of printing the plate on paper without any ink. That way you make sure that you have the right pressure on the press as well as good paper, proper set-up.
It is difficult to see that ghost print, plus I do not take particularly good photographs.
So far I love it, sadly we are many in my class and there is not that much space. Plus I am on time.
Soon I'll talk about litho.
________
* - The good thing is that in small quantities it smells like my good old oil paint solvent.
