Preparing the Plate. Take off all the sharper pieces.
Use file to file down the sides, corners & underneath. Edges can be finished with fine wte and dry paper or burnishing tool
Turn on the hotplate.
Using a Sanding Tool polish the plate further. 3Blue tac plate to the table
sanders
1 top - fine 1st
2 - Finer
3 - Finest
Take care to polish corners and edges
Put on Gloves
Get the Grease off plate
Use Whiting and bit of water
Whiting alternatives soy sauce/amonia
Rinse off surface. Make sure that water sits on surface and then ready.
Do Not Touch Surface
Dry plate with a bit of blue roll so no dust
GROUND
USE HARD GROUND
Pre Heat hot plate
place degreased plate on hot plate
Melt some hard ground on plate. Put on in two or three places.
PICK CORRECT ROLLER
H FOR HARD
Roll over ink - different directions. do not clean roller
Remove plate from Hot Plate
HOT DO NOT TOUCH
Once hot plate cool clean off with white spirit
Smoke the Plate
Balance plate on two corners in the rack
CLOSE DOOR
PUT ON EXTRACTROR FAN
LIGHT TAPER
HOLD FLAME UNDER PLATE
MOVE FLAME SLOWLY UP & DOWN
PUT OUT TAPER - STAMP
LEAVE PLATE TO COOL DOWN
DRAW ON PLATE
Use an etching needle
use stop out to paint out mistakes
wash stop-out brushes with white spirit
See above - protect the back of plate before putting it in acid by painting with straw hat varnish.
Paint the edge of plate with stop out so that it does not rust in the acid
BE CAREFUL NOT TO LET THIS GO ON THE FRONT.
WASH THE BRUSHES WITH METHS
THE TIME IN THE TRAY
Deepens the line
The longer the time the deeper the line.
1 min very light (too light)
10 -15 min medium recommended
60 minute longest
LEAVE PLATE TO DRY (LUNCH)
EXTRACTION FAN ON
THICK GLOVES
PLATE FACE SIDE UP
NITRIC ACID
PUT IN ACID BATH - COVER ALL OF PLATE
AGITATE WITH FEATHER TO REMOVE BUBBLES
AVERAGE TIME 15 MINS
TAKE OFF GROUND
GLOVES
WHITE SPIRIT
GLOVES
RAG
THE BIG REVEAL
ALWAYS HAVE A CLEAN SIDE
AND DIRTY SIDE
CHOOSE PAPER - WHITE OR CREAM?
HANNIMULA
MAKE SURE HANDS ARE CLEAN
PUT PAPER IN WATER BATH
TO SOAK
USE INTAGLIO INK ONLY
SQUEEZE A BIT ON THE COUNTER
USING SQUARE RUBBER COVER THE WHOLE OF THE PLATE
GET SCRIM- SOFTEN IT
MAKE A FLAT BED
DIRTY SCRIM - PUSH INK - FIRM GENTLE STROKES DOWN
CLEAN SCRIM - SLOWLY POLISH
WORK UNTIL NOTHING ON SURFACE BUT INK IN THE LINES
WIPE EDGES TO GET RID OF EXCESS WITH A RAG
PAPER
CAREFULLY REMOVE PAPER
X SHOWS YOU BACK OF PAPER
STICK PAPER ON SCREEN - BACK X FACING YOU
GET THE SQUEEGEE AND RUB OFF EXTRA WATER
BLOT THE PAPER
PUT YOUR PAPER UNDER THE PAPER AND THEN USE CLOTH TO BLOT
PUT TISSUE PAPER ON REGISTRATION SHEET
PUT ON YOUR PLATE - FACE SIDE UP
USE EDGES OF TISSUE PAPER TO MANOUVER YOUR PLATE INTO CORRECT POSITION
PLACE PRINTING PAPER ON TOP OF PLATE - DO THIS CAREFULLY- HOLD PAPER ON EDGE AND PUT DOWN AT EDGE AND THEN LET GENTLY DROP INTO PLACE
COVER WITH TISSUE PAPER
PUT ON BLANKETS
MAKE SURE YOUR HANDS CLEAN
TURN HANDLE
DO NOT STOP TURNING THE HANDLE/ KEEP PACE REGULAR
LIFT OF BLANKETS
PEEL OFF FIRST LAYER OF TISSUE
GENTLY PEEL BACK FIRST LAYER OF TISSUE
PEEL BACK PRINTING PAPER STARTING FROM ONE CORNER
PUT ON DRYING RACK
TO GET FLAT PRINT TAPE IT TO DRYING BOARDS WITH GUM STRIP
CLEAN PRINTING AREA AND WORK AREA
USE GLOVES, WHITE SPIRIT AND RAGS
Prepare a new plate
polished, filed and degreased.
Previously etched plates must be thoroughly degreased using whitiing and water
Dry the plate thoroughly. Make sure there is no excess whiting on the plate by polishing it with a clean paper towel.
Use a dusk mask when applying aquatint
Open the aquaint box to make sure that there are no plates already in it.
Close door and make sure it is securely shut. There is a handle that locks in.
Bang the side of the box to release any resin which may be stuck to the sides
Turn the handle roughly 20 times
The plate can then be placed in the box, face up. The sooner you put plate in box the coarser aquatint will be. If you want a finer aquatint wait a minute or two after the handle turning.
Leave the plate inside the box for 5-10 minutes. Remove plate carefully
Look to see how much aquatint is on the plate. If it looks too fine, repeat the process. We put plate back in again for a couple of minutes as first time not enough dust on surgace
Melt the aquatint onto the plate in the acid room.
Set up rack and carefully lay plate on it. Make sure the door is closed and small extractor fan just above the shelf is on. Not big one as too blowy
Use the heat gun to fuse the aquatint by holding it underneath the plate and slowly moving it to heat the whole plate
Make sure you don't blow the aquatint off the plate with the gun.
As you move the heat gun you will see where the aquatint has melted. Move it to a new area when it is melted. Just moving slowily back and forth along the plate.
BE CAREFUL WITH GUN
DONT POINT AT PEOPLE, DONT BURN YOURSELF BY TOUCHING END NOZZLE,
LEAVE PLATE ON RACK TO COOL BEFORE YOU REMOVE IT FROM THE RACK - CAN BURN
Use stop out to cover any areas that you want to leave white. Paint thinly
Dry it with a hairdryer. not heat but air flow required to dry off.
The plate wil be ready for first etch. Refer to document to show you times of etching.
I used 30 seconds
then 45 seconds
Then 45 Seconds
I went in 3 times and etching time total = 30 + 45+45
Put on big gloves in acid room.
Lay plate in the red acid tray for time you wish. For me this was 30 secs the first time
Take out of red acid tray and put plate into tray of water next door.
Then remove from tray and rinse off thoroughly using hose at sink.
Dry carefully with a hair dryer and paper towel. Dab the towel, don't wipe. Do this quite quickly as plate can rust if left wet too long
Make sure your plate is completely rinsed and dry before recommencing stopping out.
Keep repeating process. So that the plate goes in and out everytime you add more stop out. By end my plate was quite full of stop out after the 3rd go. The bit I left was the darkest as have been put in acid for longest period of time,
I put mine in 3 times
30 secs, 45 secs, 45 secs.
This gives different tones on the plate
Black ink on Aquatint plate
Blue ink on Aquatint plate
Blue with black on Aquatint plate
Plate before it was Aquatinted. this is where I started on the sunday morning with first job of having to degrease it.