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Making an Aluminium Plate Etching

Making an Aluminium Plate Etching

We recently covered in our blog how to make marks on etching plates using tools and resists. Now we’re going to put together what we’ve learnt to create a print!

This blog is part of a series featuring tips and techniques to get you started with aluminium or zinc plate etching. This post will demonstrate how to put into practice everything we’re learnt from our other blog posts about aluminium or zinc plate etching. 

First, we’ll focus on making the lines within the aluminium plate. We degreased our plate and prepared it as outlined in our earlier blog. Next, we selected an image and made a tracing of the key lines onto tracing paper.


Using carbon paper, we transferred our drawing to the aluminium plate. We made sure to flip our image over for this step, and you may want to do this too – remember that it will print in reverse.



We found white carbon paper was the most effective for this part as it provided a high contrast – but red carbon paper or blue carbon paper still works for transferring. We took care not the press too hard so that we didn’t make any marks into the grounds.

Once our drawing was transferred, we looked at our previous mark making test results to reference what kind of lines we’d like to make in this image. We decided to use a fine drypoint needle and started to make marks in the grounds (not scratching the plate!).

Next, we taped up the back of our plate using plastic parcel tape to protect it from the mordant. We left a longer piece on the top and folded it over to make a little handle. This makes it easier to lift our plate out of the copper sulphate solution.

We set up two plastic trays side by side. Wearing goggles and gloves, we poured our copper sulphate solution into one tray, and poured 2 inches of water into another tray. See this earlier blog of how to prepare your copper sulphate solution.

Following a test strip that shows the strength of our mordant, we decided to set our stopwatch to 8 minutes. Wearing goggles and gloves, we carefully placed our plate into the copper sulphate solution and started our stopwatch.

When the timer was up, we removed the plate from the mordant bath by using the plastic tape handle. We immediately placed the plate into the water bath to remove any remaining copper sulphate solution. We used a feather to lightly remove any copper particles.

Once rinsed, we removed our plate from the water bath. We could see that all the marks in our segments had etched slightly. We used the tip of a drypoint needle to feel the depth of the marks, and to see if our plate required any further time in the copper sulphate solution.

We decided our plate didn’t need any extra time, so we cleaned off our grounds using Zest-It and a dry rag. Once the grounds were removed, we could see our etched line work.

 At this point, we decided to take a test print to see how our line work was shaping up. We used Caligo Safe Wash Etching Inks by Cranfield to make a print. Now we have a reference of how the lines within our plate will print.

Next, we’ll focus on tones. We can use our earlier test print to help us create a plan. We looked at our test strip for tone strengths and we decided to create three levels of tones. Using tracing paper, a sharpie, and a pencil, we planned out where we would like some tones to appear in our image. We’ll use this plan when it comes to applying our resists.

Before we can apply the resists to our plate, we need to degrease it. We followed the degreasing steps as outlined in this blog, but we didn't apply grounds. Remember that it’s important not to touch your plate after you’ve degreased it. Your hands will naturally be slightly greasy, and fingerprints will act as a resist!

Looking at our resist experiments, we decided to use Posca Pen, Acrylic Paint and Stop Out Varnish to create tones within our image. We started to apply the resists to the plate, first by protecting all the areas we wanted to be the brightest tone. We used Posca Pen for these parts, as it appeared to provide the densest resist in our previous resists experiment. We left areas for the mid-tones exposed with no resists on them. Our earlier tone plan on tracing paper was helpful as a reference point.

Once the Posca Pen was dry, we also used Acrylic Paint to create more delicate and washed out tones. It’s important to also consider your previously etched line work - if you don’t want your lines to appear any darker, consider applying a resist to your etched lines too.

We allowed the resists on the plate to fully dry, and then we taped up the back of our plate again using plastic parcel tape. Hold your plate at the edges and try not to touch the surface of your plate when taping. You can place your plate face down on some clean paper or newsprint if this helps. 

We looked at our test strip for tone strengths and we decided to create three levels of tones: Zero Seconds, 15 Seconds and 40 Seconds. So we’ll be dipping our plate a total of two times into the copper sulphate mordant.

Returning to the trays of mordant and water, we set our stopwatch to 15 seconds for the first dip. Wearing gloves and goggles, we carefully placed our plate into the copper sulphate solution and started our stopwatch.

When the timer was up, we removed the plate from the mordant bath. We immediately placed the plate into the water bath to remove any remaining copper sulphate solution. We used a feather to lightly remove any copper particles.

Once rinsed, we removed our plate from the water bath. We could see that the exposed areas on the plate looked slightly darker and discoloured. We used a hair dryer to quickly dry off any excess water – remembering not to touch the surface with our fingers.

We applied a final layer of resists and allowed it to dry. This time we used Stop-Out varnish to cover our mid-tones, and left exposed what areas we want to be our darkest tone. It’s now ready for an additional dunk in the copper sulphate mordant.  

As our plate has already been exposed to the mordant for 15 seconds, we’ll set our stopwatch for 25 seconds - meaning our next layer will be exposed for a total of 40 seconds. Returning to the trays of mordant and water, we set our stopwatch to 10 seconds for the first dip. Wearing gloves and goggles, we carefully placed our plate into the copper sulphate solution and started our stopwatch.

When the timer was up, we removed the plate from the mordant bath. We immediately placed the plate into the water bath to remove any remaining copper sulphate solution. We used a feather to lightly remove any copper particles.

Once rinsed, we removed our plate from the water bath. We cleaned off our resists using Zest-It and a dry rag. If you find some of your resists harder to remove, you can also use a little white spirit (remember to ventilate your room).

As we cleaned our plate, we could see how the resists had worked and the different levels of 'bite' in our plate.

 

We took a print from our plate to see exactly how it had etched. We used Caligo Safe Wash Etching Inks by Cranfield to make a print, and here is our final image!

 

 More Tips

Remember not to touch your plate after you’ve degreased it. Your hands will naturally be slightly greasy, and fingerprints will act as a resist!

 

 For this project, you will need:

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