I went and saw ….. The nontoxic intaglio systems at Edinburgh Printmakers
Our excellent local arts organisation Upland (Strange name - never understood it!) have a wee fund that members can apply for called 'Go and See', which aims to assist professional artists and makers to visit events and exhibitions outwith the region that are relevant to the development of their practice. I applied for and was granted the full £150!
Here is my report of a very rewarding day.
It is very common amongst printmakers - indeed it is probably one of the reasons the activity appeals in the first place – to find that they love to explore new and different ways of making prints.
I made my first etching over 50 years ago; I have taught etching and even printed complex editions of etchings for other artists, but I never really took to any of the intaglio methods in my own work. And then during the middle period of my life, whilst I was doing other things than printmaking, something of a revolution in printmaking took place!
In just 10 or 15 years from the late 1980s, through the work of innovators like Keith Howard and Cedric Green, many people had begun to realise that alternative modern nontoxic materials could be used in most forms of printmaking as alternatives to the more traditional but dangerous and unpleasant acids and hydrocarbon solvents etc
As I was mainly interested in screen-printing, I had been quick to adapt and welcome the non smelly (and purer colour possibilities) of water based acrylic screen inks. In etching though, I was also reading about the use of less dangerous metal etchants like ferric chloride taking over from my more familiar nitric acid; and the use of alternative acrylic grounds and spray aquatints. But I had neither the facilities or real cause to try them out.
Then a couple of years ago I finally completed the last stage of the development of my own printmaking studio space at Craigshaw Barns; and at the same time became involved with the use of the printmaking studio at Gracefield Arts Centre where was a non toxic intaglio facility already. So I realised there was a need to bring myself up to date and explore the technicalities and finer points of non toxic intaglio; and then use some of the new space I had and add to my skills and knowledge and the range of methods I could safely use for my own practice (and others if needed) both at home and at Gracefield.
As the well known institution of Edinburgh Printmakers had, in many ways been the home of a lot of these non toxic etching developments, I made contact with their current Intaglio Technician, Robert Powell. We arranged to book a couple of hours of his time on a 1:1 basis, to take me through the intaglio processes they use there.
On the day of my trip, we began with a quick look at the various elements of the dedicated intaglio area in the wonderful old factory building which now houses EP. I had visited before but was then looking mainly at the screen printing facilities. Robert first gave me a small copper test plate which I de greased with their preferred mix of detergent and Sodium Metasilicate (interestingly I’m sure that is what we used to call ‘water glass’ solution in the early days of de greasing silk screens!).
On the day of my trip, we began with a quick look at the various elements of the dedicated intaglio area in the wonderful old factory building which now houses EP. I had visited before but was then looking mainly at the screen printing facilities. Robert first gave me a small copper test plate which I de greased with their preferred mix of detergent and Sodium Metasilicate (interestingly I’m sure that is what we used to call ‘water glass’ solution in the early days of de greasing silk screens!).
Then, instead of the traditional wax hard ground, we applied something from a range entirely new to me which was rolled on and carefully baked. Subsequent research after my day in Edinburgh has opened up a whole range of non toxic etching methods developed by Andrew Baldwin which are new to me and very interesting.
I spent a happy hour very quickly drawing my test image through this (I thought slightly slippery) ‘hard’ ground before using, where needed, a ‘stopping out’ product new to me – basically black acrylic ink, dried with a hair dryer.
I was a little more familiar with idea of a vertical etching bath which contained the ferric chloride solution 2:1 with water. Interestingly because the vertical etching bath allows the deposit formed during the bite to fall out of the lines, EP no longer use the famous ‘Edinburgh Etch’ solution which adds citric acid to the ferric and is supposed to avoid the need to rinse or etch face down if using a flat tray bath.
Since I returned to my own studio I have made myself a cheap vertical bath from a small plastic fuel tank. See https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ciHRXzst8NY As I do not intend to do a huge amount of etching on copper, I hope it will store my ferric mix and avoid having to fill and empty a tray when required, and also take up very little space.
I also learned that in my previous tentative experiments with ferric and copper a couple of years ago, my bite times were far from enough and that 40 mins or so is normal. Being used to nitric acid etching this seems like hours! My time in the studio was also limited, so I decided to clean off the hard ground after 30 mins and see what I’d got.
Again we used a non-toxic solution to strip the plate which I think was basically washing powder and hot water.
My research since makes it clear that there are many different ways of cleaning up in the non-toxic world! I thought the line bite of the actual drawing quite adequate to get a print, but I clearly had areas of ‘foul bite’ too which I would not expect with traditional smoked hard ground .
Robert then demonstrated their set up for applying a spray aquatint: EP’s own mix of floor polish and other water based varnishes was almost clear and had to be carefully applied in several passes of a constantly cleaned out air brush. This was actually not very successful on my plate – probably because I was asking distracting questions all the time Robert was demonstrating!
After a tremendous, rich and generous day of new tricks, this old dog went home to ponder and to take a proof from the plate I had made in my own studio. And - well, the drawing was very rushed, the bite too short and the aquatint didn’t do a great deal. But it worked well enough to tell me to want to do more etching. I will certainly use ferric chloride on copper and also intend to explore copper sulphate etch on some zinc plate, because I would obviously like, if possible to avoid having to revert to the use of acids etc. I doubt also that will I be using resin aquatint – certainly not in a traditional paddle box!
However, at the moment I personally remain a little sceptical about applying the non toxic mantra to every single aspect of printmaking. I will not open this debate here as I wish to continue my explorations. Although, I have to say, some of the chemicals and industrially produced products used often seem to make things more complex and less efficient just to avoid things like a wee drop of white spirit here and there!
But thank you Robert and the other lovely staff at Edinburgh Printmakers for a truly valuable day and Upland for the funding to make it happen.
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