Creating an etching for a present.

I have a friend who was getting married.  He and his husband are dragonfly lovers. I wanted to create something very special for them.  An etching.  Here's how I did it.

I started by drawing out the image and planning the layout.

A copper plate was prepared with a hard ground, smoked and the image was traced with pencil onto the plate.

The image is then scratched into the ground, exposing the copper underneath.

The back of the plate is covered up with tape to cover the exposed copper and it's dipped in a ferric chloride bath for a while.  The ferric bites into the exposed areas of copper creating the intaglio image in the plate.

The ground is cleaned off revealing the etched image.

A thin layer of rosin dust is applied to the surface of the plate.  The dust is heated up so it sticks to the plate. The rosin is what creates tone on the plate. Areas of the plate are covered with stop out varnish.  The plate is immersed in the ferric chloride solution again.  The aquatinted areas are etched with a tone except for the covered areas.  

More of the plate is covered and the plate put in the Ferric Chloride again.  The more the plate is exposed to the Ferric, the deeper the etching and therefore the darker the area of print.

After etching, the plate is cleaned off.

The plate is inked up and wiped.

The paper is dampened and the plate is printed through the press.

I decided to make it a bit more special by adding some colour and a little silver leaf.