How Etchings Are Made

An Intricate, Involved Process

The process of creating etchings is a lengthy, detailed, and interesting process that I enjoy. The steps involved include grounding the plate, drawing the artwork, etching the plate, inking the plate and printing the art, and finally the finish work.

I put a lot of energy into my work and love what I do. I greatly appreciates anyone who purchases my work and hope that you or whomever you give it to will enjoy it for many years.

To make an etching, Stephanie cuts a zinc or copper metal plate and polishes it with steel wool. She then heats it and applies a "hard ground" by melting several spots of a ball of hard ground onto the hot etching plate and rolling out a smooth, even coating which will look dark chocolate brown and will not be sticky when it has cooled. Hard ground consists mainly of beeswax — which is soft and pliable but clear — and roofing asphaltum, which is dark brown, yet brittle. When combined, the two make a dark coating that allows detailed drawings without chipping off. This also allows the artist to see what she is doing, since the lines and dots she draw with the etching needle appear as shiny metal surrounded by the dark chocolate brown etching ground. Since the ground will not be tacky or sticky when cooled, it is called a hard ground and Stephanie can rest her hand on the plate as she draws.

Making the Drawing

Before she begins to draw on the grounded plate, she traces the perimeter of the plate onto sketch paper and uses a viewfinder to plan her composition which she first sketches onto the paper in line only and later adds the value structure (shaded areas). This to-scale drawing on paper in ink or pencil is freely and quickly done as a guide drawing. Stephanie then takes a soft black "litho pencil" (a water soluble grease pencil) and draws the main shape divisions on top of the dark brown etching ground. This shows Stephanie her main shape areas as indicated by her earlier drawing. Stephanie then takes an etching needle (a sharp pointed metal stylus) and begins carefully drawing the detail with patterns of lines and dots with the etching needle through the waxy etching ground exposing the shiny metal. The etching needle glides through the waxy ground easier than a pencil moves on paper. If Stephanie wishes to make corrections at this stage, she paints out the area to be changed with pure liquid roofing asphaltum and lets it set up, but not dry completely and then makes the corrected drawing through this coating. Corrections after the plate has etched would have to be removed from the metal using a series of tools in a more complex process.

Handwiping  the Plate

When the drawing is completed, any area of the plate which should not be etched (the sides of the plate, scratches on the back or front) are all painted out with the asphaltum. The plate is then immersed in an acid solution (nitric for zinc and hydrochloric for copper). The acid dissolves the metal where the lines and dots Stephanie has drawn are exposed. Zinc plates must be brushed with a bird feather during this process, as bubbles form on the lines and need to be brushed off so the lines etch evenly. Areas with more lines will etch faster than more sparsely drawn areas. When an area has "cooked enough" (Stephanie can read the plate and tell when this has occurred and she also tests the lines with an etching needle to see how deep they are) the plate must be removed from the acid, the acid washed off, water dried off, and the areas which have etched deeply enough must then be protected by painting them out with liquid asphaltum. The asphaltum is allowed to dry slightly and the plate is reimmersed in the acid so that the slower etching areas can "catch up." On a small or medium sized plate, this is done four to six times. On a larger plate, it takes many more cycles in and out of the acid. Thus, as the plate is etched, the original drawing in the wax is destroyed and becomes a tarry mess.

When the plate has etched enough, Stephanie uses paint thinner, rags, and an old tooth brush to remove the etching ground and asphaltum. The drawing has now been etched into the plate with the lines lower than the surface of the plate, ready to hold ink. She then bevels the edges of the etching plate to a 45 degree angle using an electric grinder and hand tools and polishes the edges so they will not cut her paper or the etching press blankets.  

Inking the Plate & Printing the Art

Stephanie first immerses her 100% rag etching paper, which she has previously torn to size, into a tray of water. While that soaks, she inks the plate by warming the plate, and scraping etching ink over the lines with small pieces of matboard, pushing the ink — thicker than honey — down into the lines . The surface layer of ink is removed by wiping the plate with a puffy wad of tarlatan cloth (looks like stiff, starchy cheesecloth) in a circular motion out onto newspaper which absorbs some of the excess ink . The final stage of inking a plate is called a "hand wipe" when Stephanie uses the backs of her hands and her fingers to remove the final layer of ink from the shiny areas of the plate (image at left) . A stiff, brusque motion is used so the ink comes off the shiny (white) areas but piles up on the lines. The edges of the plate must be cleaned with small rags.

Now, it is time to set the pressure on the press, fold the three etching blankets back, place the plate on the press bed, and dry the paper. The paper is lifted from the water vat and the surface water removed using towels. The paper is very soft and pliable but the surface water has been removed. The paper is placed over the plate, the three blankets positioned, and the plate is run through the press, which applies about 500 lbs. per square inch to the plate and paper. Next, Stephanie peels the paper off the plate to see what she has.

Finish Work

When drawing the plate, the image is reversed for the artist — what was on the left is now on the right, what was light is now dark, and vice versa; so the artist doesn't really know what the etching will look like until it is printed. Stephanie prints or "proofs" the plate twice at this stage. One shows what she really has and the other proof is one she will draw on to plan her finish work. If there is extensive touchup work, another etching ground will have to be applied and the whole etching process repeated. If there is less touchup work (and Stephanie tries to attain a degree of refinement before etching the plate so this is sometimes the case), finish work can be done without acid by engraving the plate by cutting the metal by hand with a "burin." All of Stephanie's etchings include finish work with engraving. Each time the plate is printed to see the additions, it is called a proof, with the proofs becoming more and more finished until Stephanie deems it finished. At that time, an edition number (total quantity to be printed) is determined and the edition of prints is printed. An edition of prints can have up to 10% of the edition as finished artist's proofs (A.P.). Each print receives a fractional number with the top number being the number of that print in the series and the bottom number the total number in that edition. For example, "25/125" would be the 25th print in an edition of 125.

 Since the artist is not creating just one image but is creating an edition of prints, the extra time, tools, equipment and supplies are used to make the entire edition. Therefore single pieces with such exquisite detail and beauty can be affordable.

Stephanie draws her landscapes on location where she has lived or traveled.

She draws her flowers from live flowers, many of which she grows in her painting garden in Walnut Creek. With her flower etchings, Stephanie often prints a black and white edition and a "second state" edition which is printed in green ink and then watercolored (click the images to read more about each).