Debora Ando | The Belugas are Watching

We’ve been etching again. I used a sketch of a wolf I made last year at Wolf’s Hollow as the basis for one of my etchings and Michael used some sketches from the baby book he’s working on.

First we scratched…

Then we inked…

Went to the press. Laid down the plate. Rolled…

And revealed.

And started all over again!

Ink

plates in position

plates and prints

And here are our prints:

wolves from me

babes in arms and cats from Michael

It’s the second time we’ve attended a day course with Debora Ando. She’s a great teacher, patient and clear and fun. The National Print Museum holds all sorts of interesting workshops. They also have a really great wee cafe with excellent coffee and fantastic food.

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.