We signed up for a day class in print-making one Saturday back in February. Our teacher was Debora Ando and we joined three other students for a four-hour crash-course in etching on perspex and copper. When Debora suggested we might get three separate prints made within that time I was sceptical, but we did! Here are some photos of the process and the results. We both loved it and we’ll definitely be doing more print-making sometime soon. We may even try etching a whole book…

(If you click on any image below you can scroll through them at full size.)

Etching on perspex from an old rough sketch for The Long March. It’s very hard to see the lines scratched in the perspex.

Debora inks the perspex for me

Ready to print -the ink has made the image very visible now.

Printing…

Taa daa!

Michael wipes away the excess ink

Ready to print…

Taa daa again!

First prints drying. Michael’s – bottom left – is from a sketch of Paul Bunyan for the next ‘You Read to Me’ book.

Michael is drawing an image in pencil; the waxed copper plate is underneath the paper. The pencil is making an impression through the paper into the wax, lifting the wax off the copper plate. The acid will etch into these lines; the rest of the plate is protected by the wax, which we will wipe off when we take it out of the acid bath.

The acid is getting to work on the soft point etchings – look closely!

This is soft point etching

Removing the excess ink from my dry point etching. This image is scratched directly into the hard wax with a sharp tool.

The plate and the print!