‘Aguafuerte’ in Spanish, ‘Eau-forte’ in French – both feel punchy, literally translating as something like ‘strong water’. The English translation however is ‘etching’. Somewhat less dramatic, conjuring up, for me at least, images of Victorian men labouring in poor light over dingy reproductions.
It is however nothing of the sort and is my new favourite printing technique – entirely living up to its dramatic Spanish name. So here goes step by step …
On the right is the zinc plate I worked with. Prior to this point a lot of work has already gone into the plate. I’ve sanded and smoothed it down. I’ve treated it with ‘blanco de España’ (a white chalky substance) and a vinegar solution, which variously deoxidise and remove any grease/fat from the zinc. Then I’ve painted the zinc plate with a brown treacle-y varnish and left it dry for a few days. Only then can the aguafuerte magic begin.
When you scratch into the brown varnish, the zinc metal beneath it is revealed. Then when the plate is then put into an acid bath, the exposed metal is eaten away, creating a relief on the plate, which you can then print from. The acid bath goes something like this …
The acid is copper sulphate solution and the black bits floating around is the oxidised zinc that is being eaten away from the plate, revealing something like this …
You can see that the parts of the image I’ve chosen to expose first are the darkest parts of the image.
After another dip in the acid bath, I scratch away the third layer of detail
Resulting in my final plate …
And after cleaning away the brown varnish, the final plate looks like this – ready for some printing. All the black bits have been oxidised away and are indents in the metal plate, so ink can be forced into these lines, and the plate used to print from …
And my first print felt immediately satisfying.
And playing around with colour a bit more, I’m very happy with this deep green girl.
