Monday, 26 July 2010

Etching efforts..

... At Cuckoo Farm Studio's
Yet another steep learning curve, why do I put myself through this?
Oh......I remember... I LOVE it.

I have now attended three of my four one day printing courses.  They have been wonderful, and being taught my such talented printmakers is a joy. The studio is a large airy room with several work areas and and 4 printing presses...well that's as many as I counted, together with a room for acids and cleaning and a large cupboard for aquatint. Not forgetting tea making facilities... Very important. 

Our tutor for the day was a very talented printmaker called Jill Desborough she does the most amazing work, do look her up you will not be disappointed. 
http://www.12printmakers.co.uk/jd.html
So this I what I produced, a soft ground etching of a starling, using two zinc plates.  There are quite a few stages to doing a soft ground etching and as I said, I was on a steep learning curve, or remembering curve as the case may be... over 20 years since I last did any etching...Have I mentioned that I loved it?....It was wonderful.
Here are the two plates

*Note the handy use of the egg tray, I can pick up the plates without touching the surface..Which is a no, no... fingerprints are not good when etching.

6 comments:

  1. This is so interesting to me. I am starting an etching class on thursday morning. It is all new to me too and I have no idea what the process entails. I am hoping I can extend my doodling skills into printing. Thank you for sharing this.

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  2. Welcome the world of printmaking and I'm so glad you love it!! Your print came out awesome!I've been a printmaker for 20+ years. I've done etching, but my fave technique is collagraphs.
    It's just hard to find the time to do it!

    Carla T.

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  3. Your starling is darling! (couldn't resist) Nice print... and the egg carton is a great idea!! I will pass the tip along to the printmaking prof. where I teach. I've never seen her use that trick.

    Happy printing!
    Valerianna

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  4. I did printmaking as part of an art course many moons ago - loved it! I"d love to do more, but the prospect of getting all the right gear is a bit daunting. I loved that process where you rough up the surface of the plate and then progressively burnish the surface with a steel tool to get gradations in tone (the smoother the surface, the lighter the tone) Just forget what it is called...............X}
    Your starling is wonderful, BTW!

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  5. oh, wow. you print in wonderful... You did this entire thing in one workshop.. wow...

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  6. AnonymousJuly 30, 2010

    when I first started collagraphs I tried to print by kneeling on it and doing a "knee" version of the twist! disaster! etching press a must unless you 're doing very deep relief work!
    great work ,adore the theatre dolls,the arrangement on your title would make a lovely collagraph!

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