Introduction

Our project incorporated several technical processes we have experimented with as a class in our laboratory sessions this semester. In order to complete our final products, we made paper, prepared two zinc plates (one of which we etched, the other using the aquatint method), and then printed our designs onto our paper. We made a total of eighteen prints, nine of which depict Walsh Ellett, the remaining nine each bear the same bold geometric design that juxtaposes the fine lines of the first plate.

Background

The etching and aquatint processes of printmaking were developed at different times in history and aim to achieve different visual effects. Etching was practiced as early as the fifteenth century but was not used regularly as an art form until the seventeenth century by the Dutch. Rembrandt was one of the more famous artists who frequently and consistently used etching as one of his media. Aquatint was developed much later in the eighteenth century and aims to produce different gradations in tone that go beyond the technique of etching. The aquatint stopper that we used was a can of gray spraypaint that was sprayed evenly over the entire surface of the zinc plate. This created a texture after it was placed in the acid bath for a certain amount of time that cross-hatching in an etching could not achieve.

Rembrandt van Rijn's "Self-Portrait with Wide-Open Eyes" from 1630 (Below, Left)

Francisco Goya's "Estan Calientes" from the late 18th Century (Below, Right)

Procedure

Papermaking materials:

Two square pieces of wool fabric
Two square pieces of pelon
One deckle box
Drainage pipe
Drainage bucket
Two large beakers
One spray bottle of water
One glass stirrer
One two-liter plastic bottle filled with water (to be used as a rolling pin)
Cotton pulp from two different white 100% cotton t-shirts
Diluted liquid sizing
Two large wooden drying boards
500 ml beaker (used for measuring pulp)
Labels

Papermaking procedure :

We began by collecting our necessary materials and setting up our workspace. We then dipped the beaker into the tub of beaten pulp and evenly removed 300 ml of pulp. We filled the deckle box so that the water occupied at least 75% of the box. We then poured the pulp into the deckle box and immediately began stirring. While stirring, we mixed 25 drops of diluted sizing [4 drops diluted to 10 mL] into the water and pulp mixture. After stirring for about thirty seconds, we opened the drain and allowed the water to drain completely from the box. Once removed, we took the mold from the stand and brought it down to the table and held it perpendicular to the surface on top of a square of wool that was covered by a smaller square piece of pelon that had been sprayed with water. We then lowered the mold horizontally so that the pulp was gently pressed onto the pelon. We applied pressure and removed the mold entirely, leaving the pulp on the pelon and wool material. Next, we took a second piece of pelon and laid it over the pulp. Then we laid another piece of wool on top and took the two-liter bottle that had been filled with water and used it as a rolling pin. We lightly rolled the bottle (without applying any extra pressure) three times over the padding and the pulp sample. After doing so, we removed the top layers of wool and pelon and took the pelon that the pulp had been pressed into and took it to our drying board where we lightly transferred our newly formed wet piece of paper onto the wood board. We labeled the piece of paper as 300 ml ¼. We then repeated this entire process three more times, thus creating four sheets of 300 ml paper. We performed this entire process four more times using 400 ml of pulp and keeping the 25 drops of diluted sizing constant. Finally, we created our final four sheets of paper using 500ml. Again, we followed the same process and kept the amount of sizing constant. We produced 16 pieces of paper that we left to dry on the large wooden board. We covered all of the paper with blotting paper and then laid another large wooden board on top of the first board, the newly made paper and the blotting paper. After an hour, we removed the paper from the board piece by piece and placed it between two pieces of fresh, dry blotting paper. We then ironed the paper on either side in order to activate the sizing. We did this with each of the paper samples. Afterwards, we returned the paper to the drying board, recovered the pieces with fresh, dry blotting paper and again, placed the other drying board of equal size on top of the bottom board, the newly made paper and the blotting paper and left it overnight to dry. The usage of this second board ensured a flattened dry paper and made a product that looked more professional and formal.

(Description of photos from left to right) Deckle box set up. Materials for transfering pulp on mold to pelon. Ironing to activate sizing. Drying board.

In the following laboratory session, we prepared our two zinc plates.

Materials for plate preparation :

Two zinc plates
Putz Pomade
Triangluar rough metal file
Newspaper sheets
100% Isopropyl Alcohol
Mineral spirits
Hard ground
Paint brush
Paper toweling

Plate preparation procedure :

We first peeled off the plastic coat from the backs of the two plates. Next, we beveled the edges of the plate with a triangular file. Then we cleaned off the ZnO coating with Putz-Pomade using sheets of newspaper. While holding the plate at the edges, we then cleaned the plate with Isoproyl alcohol in the hood. Next, we carefully laid the clean plates in the hood on pieces of paper toweling. With a paint brush, we applied an even coat of ground onto each zinc plate and then left the plates in the hood to dry for about ten minutes. Then, we carefully removed the plates from the hood and using a styllus, drew our two designs into the plates by carefully removing the ground. The first design is a delicate sketch of Walsh Ellett. The second design is a series of overlapping circles.

Both zinc plates prepared to be etched (Below)

Next, we etched the two zinc plates :

Materials for etching:

2 Trays for holding the acid
3 Molar nitric acid
2 Paint brushes
Tweezers
Isopropyl Alcohol
Mineral Spirits
Paper toweling

Procedure for etching the two zinc plates :

In order to etch the zinc plates, we first immersed the plates into baths of 3 molar nitric acid. While immersed, we used the paint brushes to remove the bubbles that constantly coated the surface of the plates. When the zinc plate spent a total of six minutes in the bath, we removed the plates carefully with the tweezers and rinsed both plates with tap water in order to stop the chemical reaction. We then patted the plates dry with paper toweling and then in the hood, we removed the ground from the etched plates using mineral spirits and paper toweling. Once completely clean, we made a final rinse of the plates with Isopropyl Alcohol and wiped them dry. We left the plate with the Walsh Ellet design alone and did not do anything further to it. The plate with the circles on it was further developed using the aquatinting method.

Materials for aquatinting :

Etched zinc plate
100% Isopropyl Alcohol
3 Molar nitric acid
1 Tray for holding the acid
Gray spraypaint
Hard ground
Paint brush

Procedure for aquatinting the previously etched plate :

The design on the second plate was chosen so that it would provide different gradations of tone. The first round of etching created the outlines of the circles. Now the aquatinting actually begins. Standing a foot away from the plate (that we balanced horizontally against a newspaper and trashcan as shown below), we sprayed the entire plate evenly with one coat of gray spraypaint. Then we placed the plate in the same acid bath for one minute. In order to create varying gradations of tone, we used a paintbrush and hard-ground and stopped off the entire background of the plate where there were no circles drawn. After the hard-ground was dry, we sprayed the plate evenly again with spraypaint and placed the plate in the acid bath for one minute. Then we cleaned off the entire plate using mineral spirits and 100% Isopropyl Alcohol. Next, we stopped off the areas in the center of the circles (where the two circles were not overlapping) and sprayed the entire plate again. We then placed the plate in the bath for another minute. This produced darker areas where the circles overlapped and thus contrasted from the lighter background.

Prepared plate, background stopped out (Below, Left). Scottie spraypainting etched plate before placing in acid bath (Below, Right).

Finally, we were prepared to make our prints :

Materials for printing :

Several small squares of cardboard
1 Square foot of taffeta
Two prepared zinc plates (one etched, one aquatinted)
Ink (black, blue, brown)
Paper toweling
1 Sheet of paper
2 Pieces of felt
Printing press template
Printing press
Mineral Spirits
Water

Procedure for printing :

First, we took our sheets of paper and tore them in half in order to create a piece of paper that would be more proportional to the size of our zinc plates. We then took the paper and sprayed it down on either side with a water bottle (immersing it fully in water would cause the paper to fall apart since it is hand made and very porous). We then blotted the paper and placed it between two sheets of blotting paper in order to keep it damp. Next, we prepared the printing press template for our piece of zinc by measuring the dimensions of the paper and then by placing the zinc plate on top of the paper and drawing an outline so that the borders and alignment will be the same on all of the produced prints. Next, we inked the plate using a small piece of cardboard to drag the ink across the plate and into the etched grooves. We wiped the excess ink from the plate with another piece of cardboard. We blotted the zinc plates with newspaper and then took the square foot piece of taffeta and wiped the surface of the plate clean while making sure to not dig too deep and accidentally remove ink from the etched grooves. With clean hands, we placed the template on the bed of the press on top of the bottom piece of felt and then laid one of our etched plates over in its appropriate spot, as indicated by our template. Next, we placed our damp paper over the inked plate and then covered it with a normal piece of paper. We covered this stack with another piece of felt and then ran the plate and paper through the press. Afterwards, we lifted the felts carefully, one at a time and then lifted the paper from the metal plate. We set the print on a drying board to dry. We then thoroughly cleaned the plate, re-inked and started the process over again.

We used black, blue and brown ink for both the etched and aquatinted plates. For the etched plate, we printed three of each color, each of the three prints was done on one piece of 300 mL paper, one piece of 400 mL paper and one piece of 500 mL paper. So in total, we produced nine prints from the etched plate that bears the design of Walsh Ellett. We used the same method for producing nine prints from the aquatinted zinc plate.

Observations and Data

Observations of the zinc plates:

Observations of the inking and printing the zinc plates:

Measurements in grams of the weight of every print that we made:

Observations/Conclusions of Six Select Prints:

(Prints from left to right: Walsh Ellet #1, Walsh Ellet #2, Walsh Ellet #3)

(Prints from left to right: Overlapping Circles #1, Overlapping Circles #2, Overlapping Circles #3)

Conclusions

For our final project we set out to test how two different forms of printmaking (etching and aquatint) would interact with our own hand-made paper made from 100 percent white cotton pulp. The variable was the different amounts of pulp that were used in the papermaking. The steps involved in printmaking were keep constant (to the best of our ability). However, throughout the procedural part of our experiment we realized that it was very difficult to keep some of these processes entirely constant. For example, during the inking and printing processes it was impossible to apply the ink in the exact same way every time. It was also impossible to wipe off the ink in the exact same way to create the same surface for printing every time. This directly affected our results because we were looking for the different ways that the ink was absorbed by the different sheets of paper that we created. The problem then resides in the possibility that within the same series of prints, the ink could have been applied very heavily on the first print and very lightly on the other two. Thus, we could have deduced that the sheet of paper made with the least amount of pulp absorbed the ink the best. However, since we repeated our experiment many different times we found this problem was eliminated because of the consistency of our results. Also, within each series only one person applied the ink, which eliminated any differences in ink application within the partnership. We also kept the mixtures of inks and mineral oil constant for each series, so that the results could not be affected by different ratios of ink to oil. Another factor that we had not considered until after we had already gathered the results was the diluted sizing that we used. The sizing was kept constant throughout the entire papermaking procedure (25 drops in each pulp and water mixture in the deckle box). We did not consider the fact that the ratio of sizing to pulp could have affected the way that the different sheets of paper absorbed the ink. In other words, the 25 drops of sizing that were mixed in with the 300mL of pulp had a greater ratio of sizing to pulp than the paper made with 500mL of pulp. If we had kept the ratio constant throughout the papermaking process, the results would have been more indicative of what we were trying to test. Overall, the results that we gathered allowed us to come to the conculsion that the sheets of paper that were made with the greatest amount of pulp (500mL) resulted in the most successful prints. We attributed this to the fact that the more pulp used resulted in a more porous surface that would absorb a greater amount of ink and therefore create the sharpest lines and a successful print.

Original Plan vs. Final Experiment

As mentioned in our conclusion, we carried out our original plan and only altered small details such as the size of our final product (we tore the paper in half) and the amount of pulp used for the paper (each measurement was adjusted by just fifty milliliters). Even though we stayed true to our original plan, we realized throughout the experiment that there were many factors we could have adjusted in order to enhance the project. We could have kept the ratio constant of sizing to pulp, rather than keeping the amount of sizing constant. Also, we could have changed the project so that we could have more of a variable, rather than just the changing of the amount of pulp used to create the paper. Even though we realized that much of our project was difficult to truly control, we learned a valuable lesson in planning experiments and ultimately walked away with a good knowledge of papermaking and printmaking, which are both hobbies we are sure we will enjoy in the future.

Links

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/a/aquatint.html

http://www.sewanee.edu/chem/Chem&Art/default.html

Other References

Banister, Manly. Etching and Other Inaglio Techniques. (New York: Sterling Publishing) 1969.

Hind, Arthur M. A History of Engraving and Etching, (New York: Dover Publications, Inc.) 1963.

Lumsden, E. S. The Art of Etching, (New York: Dover Publications, Inc.) 1962.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thanks Dr. Bordley for his help in class and during our laboratory sessions.

We would like to thank Professor Fitz for sharing her extensive knowledge of printmaking with us, her passion for the art inspired us.