Yard Art Tangles I
This piece: soaker hose, pex pipe, hose fittings, drill bits, ping pong ball, wire, spray paint lid, spray paint. It is mounted about 10′ up, on a PVC pipe set into a cylindrical rock basket (gabione).
Copper Etching Plate 1 after one bite (workshop day)
Print from first draft of the copper plate
I had a great day in the workshop (taught by Julie Abowitt: thank you Julie!) at Corvidae Press. And I finally got to try ferric chloride copper plate etching.
My very simple line drawing relied on texture, shading & color that does not translate directly to the scribing for this process: I will need to learn more techniques and also draw differently for etching purposes. So I do not like this plate yet, but it may improve with further work.
Also I am very bad about tracing drawings, and somehow I lost the overall shape of the figure in tracing and scribing the lines into the Pledge floorwax applied to the plate.
I really do not like the shape of head now, and the body/bandages just look wrong instead of ambiguous in this version. Oh well, it is a start!
I will strip off the wax, and get out the burnishing tool to soften some lines, then think about the next steps.
An amazing thing happened at the fairgrounds today: I found an older Richeson etching press (19″x36″ bed) for sale, with blankets, miscellaneous useful tools, inks, and chemicals. Unprepared, but nevertheless ready, I put down a $50 deposit, and arranged to come back with more money and a vehicle. Now it is in my studio!
Putting the “new” press to work immediately!
On the assumption that she who hesitates is lost, I put the new press to work within hours. No water-based inks at home, so I dug through an inch of dry Graphite Chemicals bone black, and voila! Prints!
It works!
