Printing An Etching
The History of Intaglio Printmaking
Inking and printing an etched plate varies little today from the methods that were used in the 16th century. Traditionally, a thick, oil-based ink is used in the printing process due to its lightfastness, which ensures that the printed image survives over a long period of time.
For this image, I chose Graphic Chemical Burnt Umber etching ink. Because this ink is always a bit looser than I like to print with, I’ve stiffened it by adding magnesium carbonate powder. I’ve also mixed in a couple of drops of clove oil to keep the ink from drying out while it’s exposed to open air. I mix the ink and additives on a sheet of glass using a palette knife.
Applying Ink to the Plate
Our editions are printed using oil-based etching inks. Straight out of the can (or tube), the ink often requires the addition of modifiers that serve to stiffen, loosen, or make the ink more transparent depending on how we want the appearance of the prints to turn out. Once the ink has been conditioned, it is applied to the plate using a soft rubber brayer. Here, I am charging up the brayer with ink…
…and here, I am rolling the ink onto the plate. The plate is resting on a heated surface (approximately 110° F) so that the ink will more readily go down into the incised lines.
Wiping the Plate
After the plate is fully covered with ink, I wipe the ink off of the surface of the plate with a piece of starched cheesecloth, called “tarletan”, so that only the ink that’s been pressed into the incised lines remains. The ink that remains in the lines it what will be printed onto paper.
The plate is wiped until the surface is cleaned to the desired degree. The more wiping, the brighter the image that will print, but one has to take care not to over-wipe the plate since this can unintentionally remove ink from the lines and result in a washed out look to the print (like too much dodging in a photograph). Less wiping leaves a residual layer of tinted oil, which is known as “plate tone,” which sometimes is a desired effect as it lends an aura of moodiness to the print.
After surface wiping is completed, the edges of the plate are carefully wiped with a touch of alcohol to so that they don’t hold ink.
After all wiping is completed, the plate is laid down onto the press bed to prepare for printing. I use a template to line up the plate with a sheet of paper so that the image prints in the center of the paper.
Preparing the paper for printing
While I’ve been preparing the plate for printing, I have hand-torn sheets of rag paper soaking in a tray of clean water. The paper needs to be damp when printing so that it doesn’t tear on the corners of the inked plate when passed through the press rollers. The paper is carefully removed from the soaking tray and placed on blotting towels.
Excess water is removed from the paper by sandwiching it between blotting towels and gently hand-blotting. As a final preparation step, I use an architectural brush to remove any debris that might have found its way onto the surface of the paper.
Laying On the Paper
Once sufficiently dried (yet still damp to the touch) the paper is carefully lined up and laid down to cover the face-up plate on the press bed. Once the paper is laid down, I really can’t move it because it will have already picked up some ink from the surface, and doing so would result in unintended marks in the print.
The blanket is then gently rolled down over the paper and plate, taking care not to disturb the paper.
Printing
After the blanket is down, the image is run through the press rollers, where a tremendous amount of pressure is applied to print the plate image onto the rag paper.
This is a traditional etching press, with a roller on top of the bed, and one underneath the bed.
Once the plate has passed through the rollers sufficiently so that the paper is not still trapped under the top roller, the blanket is lifted, and we get our first look at the print.
Seeing Results!
It is always a delight to see a nicely printed image!
Since the wet paper has warped due to extreme pressure as it passes through the rollers with the plate, the print would dry wavy if left to sit out in the open air. The print should be dried between weighted sheets of corrugated board so that it dries flat.
