Etching2

My next process is called aquatinting, most of my plates goes through this half tone process. Aquatint is ground up very fine pine rosin that I fill a small bag with and sprinkle into the top of a five foot tall home made box. I let the heavy particles fall to the bottom and then insert my plate on a shelf partway up from the base. The fine particles of rosin dust fill my plate and then I heat them to melting on a hot plate and let them cool. Now I have thousands of tiny acid resistant dots on my plate. I begin masking out areas that will be lighter in tone and the darker sections get to be in the nitric acid for a longer period of time and therefore will hold more ink eventually.
			This progression of photos shows the masking out of tones.

I guess what I love most about doing etchings is the element of the unknown. I never really know until I take my proofs what I have etched into the metal, and the fascination never ends when I examine a plate up close and look at all the tiny grooves I've made.

When I see just a small part of the plate that way you realize how important each little etched dot on the plate is to the whole

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