etching (a brief description)

I have drawn through an acid-resistant coating, called the ground. Only the 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 – called an original print (because each is inked and printed by hand, unlike a photomechanical reproduction) –  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.