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.