MY etching PROCESS, BRIEFLY

Without scratching into the plate, I have drawn through an acid-resistant coating, called the ground. Only the exposed drawn lines will become etched.

I lower a plate into a bath of ferric chloride, which corrodes the exposed areas of bare copper.

Every etched line is now a groove to hold ink. Rolling ink onto the plate, I then wipe the surface clean, while ink remains in the lines.

I place the inked plate on the press bed face up, then a sheet of fine paper, and then felt blankets. This stack is squeezed under pressure between steel rollers; the ink transfers to the paper. Adding to the image often means repeating the entire procedure.

A print and the plate from which it was made. The etching is an original print (because each is inked and printed by hand, unlike a photomechanical reproduction). It  has a distinctive look: a characteristic line quality; ink raised above the paper; embossing by the plate; a lesser or greater plate tone from the film of ink remaining on the copper surface.

In addition to the etched line, one may use drypoint, which is scoring into the plate with a sharp steel point. The above image was purely drypoint, with no etching solution used.