Teaching non-toxic etching using polymer based plate and vegetable oil inks

polymer plate intaglio and mix media prints by participant Muriel

Last weekend I made a journey to the community of Kenora, Ontario to deliver a two day intensive workshop in non-toxic etching. This was hosted by the Kenora Association for Community Living through their Arts Hub initiatve.
It was also the first time I have ever offered this particular technique publicly as a workshop.

The space we used is in a converted older house in a quiet neighbourhood of the town. There is a wonderful artist studio/residence across the street called Fragile Glass. 
http://www.kmts.ca/krisg/

Working in a space not really set up for printmaking proved a little bit of challenge. However I had given a workshop in this very same space back in 2012 and remembered the layout. I knew we would need specific areas in the space for each stage.

This time around there was a bit more working space due to some rearrangement by staff. I did have to improvise though and a downstairs washroom was adapted into a make-shift darkroom and the front entry porch become our print studio where there was a corner for the press, a large table for inking of the plates, a clothesline for hanging of work to dry and another table for papers. It was a bit tight so we could only have x number of persons really at any given time. We did manage to squeeze around 10 in for my demo on the Sunday morning. I find that showing first hand how a plate is made, inked and printed says a lot more than trying to read about it on a paper printout.

space in the printing porch was at a premium...everyone respected each other and a nice rhythm was established based on fairness of time allocation so everyone got a turn to produce several prints if they so chose

There were a few minor annoying glitches on the first day however things progressed much better on the second. 
Some issues with the new Kodak manufactured plates with regards to exposure and development times were thankfully resolved and just a couple of the small 4 x 5 inch plates didn't expose very well. The problem is that most of my knowledge prior to this workshop was with US manufactured plates sold under the brand name of Solar plate. The newer replacement plates are still marketed by Solar plate but there are some slight differences than the older formula plates mainly in term of exposure and developing (or wash out of the etch). The first thing I noticed is that the plates are a gold coloured emulsion. The older version was a bright pinkish orange coating. Plates are emulsion coated and this is fused onto a very thin steel plate. These are very sensitive to ultra-violet light. 
I use both a homemade exposure unit (blacklight tubes mounted inside a constructed wooden frame box) and also exposure outdoors to sunlight on days with very little clouds. 
http://myprintmakingjourney.blogspot.ca/2015/07/back-in-studio-solar-plate.html

The basis of using this method is to avoid using toxic solvents, acids and such that would require an artist to have barriers over skin, respiratory passages, eyes and also adequate ventilation.

My introduction to etching back in the mid to late 1970s had me coat a zinc or copper plate using a soft or hard ground. This material had to be melted onto the plate surface by setting a candle or propane torch flame underneath. Then came the challenge of getting an image onto the waxy coated surface. Once this was accomplished then I had to scribe into those delicate lines using a sharp etching needle. The plate was then immersed into a corrosive acid bath and allowed to etch for a specific time frame. If you wanted tonal and textural elements additional applications had to be made that included dusting the plates with a fine rosin powder to create and aquatint effect. It was a lot of work of covering areas of the plate, leaving some areas open to bite.
And finally was the ink application to the plate itself and the printing stages.

If you are interested in the viewing some of the traditional process here is a great 4 min duration video I found in You Tube that describes the process
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZeGa9Gi5XM
I have found that using the polymer method can yield a good result and it helps speed the process up a bit with a few less steps than traditional. There is a bit of a learning curve involved however but once you have produced a few plates and produced successful prints it is a welcome change from the traditional method of etching that I mentioned.

The opaque black and/or grayscale artwork or grayscale photo based image is exposed to the plate for a determined length of time and then is developed in a tray of water using a scrubbing out technique. The plates can be used for both intaglio and also relief processes.

If one has a detailed piece of artwork or photo image with tonal gradations and wants their image to be produced as an intaglio (below the surface area that holds the ink) they would first pre-expose the plate to a very fine dot half-tone that is referred to as an aquatint screen. The plate is set onto a firm board with a cushion surface directly underneath the plate (bubblewrap, foam, etc..). The aquatint screen is set over top of the plate, a piece of plate glass is clamped tightly to the board to bring the half-tone screen and plate into very close contact. The shorter the exposure to a UV light source will yield a darker image, the longer an exposure the lighter the image will burn.
Artwork on film, inkjet transparency or direct application of media onto the plate surface is followed after the aquatint screen exposure.
http://www.myprintmakingjourney.blogspot.ca/2009/02/3-etching-on-polymer-plate-created-from.html

I have found a good low relief plate surface can also be achieved with a direct exposure to the plate without the pre-exposed aquatint screen stage. Just remember anything that is black and opaque will be the area of the plate that will etch or wash out. For relief prints you want to use a longer exposure and have the areas that ink will not apply (below the surface). What I have done in the past is scan or take a high contrast photo of my artwork and revert it to a negative.


Several of the participants who attended had past experience with etching. 

Not only did the participants learn about creating artwork on film or inkjet transparency sheets but I demonstrated a few techniques for inking and printing the images once the plates were exposed, and the polymer surface was cured by post-exposing the plate again to UV light source.

These included 

• the addition of linear/textural elements using an etching needle
• combination intaglio with relief roll (ink wiped into lower etched areas followed by additional colour(s) rolled across the plate surface with brayers
• producing a colour monoprint from separate thin acrylic plate followed by the overprint of the polymer etched plate
• handmade oriental paper collage application (chine-collé)

Bill lifting his small etching with chine colle (the moment of reveal after running it through the press rollers).


Nestor Falls ON based artist Bill McFarlane and his first print off the plate with collage of light violet japanese paper

hanging works to dry on a makeshift indoor line

original painting created by Mureil and the black ink monochromatic print produced off polymer plate. We scanned here artwork first, converted it into grayscale and increased contrast so the yellow background would become a very faint gray tonal area.

this print originates from a collage of organic materials on card base. It was scanned and adjustments were made using photo-editing to give best contrast. The artist thought she might incorporate a bit of colour using watercolour once the print had dried.

printing studio in a small sunporch at Arts Hub in Kenora

Not only did the participants learn about creating artwork on film or inkjet transparency sheets but I demonstrated a few techniques for inking and printing the images once the plates were exposed, the polymer cured by post exposing the plate again to UV.

These included:

• adding additional linear and textural elements using an etching needle
• viscosity printing
• relief roll
• monoprint made from separate acrylic plate following by overprint of the metal etched plate

back in the studio - solar plate experimentations and mix media applications

new   Solarplate with inked image ready for first printing

I finally found some time to be creative again in the studio.
After a very busy year with practically 100% of my time occupied as an arts educator in classrooms it is nice to be able to take ideas that have been on the back-burner and realize them.
I have jumped right back into intaglio process and I am translating sketches to plate based etchings.

I also recently gave a workshop in Solar plate printmaking in the community of Kenora Ontario. 
Kenora is located on the beautiful Lake of the Woods that shares borders with the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba as well as the northwest corner of Minnesota, our nearby US neighbour state. 
The next blog entry will focus on this adventure and showcase some of the wonderful results that participants created that weekend. I had to adapt some equipment for travel and that could be set up quickly on-site during workshops.

I wanted to feature in this post a bit of process and how I have adapted solar plate to my own intaglio printmaking endeavours.

Tip for working with UV sensitive materials

I have had to work in some dark conditions with ultra-violet spectrum sensitive materials. This meant working in an environment with very little light. However I learned that LED does not emit any UV. I purchased a couple of LED multi-light flashlights at the local Discount store. These came with a small magnet on the back in addition to a pop out plastic hanger. I was able to use them in my basement studio and found I could secure them to metal ductwork installed in a ceiling right over my working area as the magnet on the back has enough hold. 

LED flashlights attached to metal ducts via magnets



Exposure unit

First I want to feature the portable darkroom booth built with the purpose to house my home-made exposure unit. I constructed that unit a few years back to use for exposing the light sensitive plates to a source of UV light when sunlight wasn't an option.

portable exposure booth set up on top of a folding workmate shop bench. You can see my small Blick etching press that I have secured with woodscrews through a base mount board into the top of a box type cabinet I constructed for my studio.

Using a simple wood frame box I built in my workshop I mounted four black light units side by side to the underside of the lid in the interior of the box. I also left an additional area where I mounted a power bar beside the lights into which all four plug into. The box is set onto four 3" x  2" (7 x 5 cm) wood feet that elevate it to  4 inches (10 cm) above the base and this leaves working room to insert a plate, positive, small clamps and smooth edged plate glass underneath the banks of lights. I don't usually work with plates larger than 8  x10 inches (20 x 25 cm) in dimension (actually a lot smaller in most cases) and this provides plenty of exposure area for my plates.
The power bar cord runs out the side of the unit and I plug this into a nearby outlet. When I travel I bring along a 3 prong receptacle extension cord as one never knows where the nearest plug-in might be located.

Since I require an area with no influence of UV light until exposure I created a fold up booth made of recycled corrugated cardboard and a black fabric drape-over curtain. 
I attached black poster paper to the interior side of the cardboard sheets with double sided tape and also set a large piece of the black paper down on the table surface underneath the exposure box. I run a yard stick or two across to span across the top of the 3 sided walls of the booth and have the fabric drape cover as a ceiling and a drop down door for the front of the booth.

Plates are generally exposed with an aquatint screen first.  The very micro size dot aquatint screen works like a half-tone to create tonal variations and pick up fine details. Exposures are usually for a shorter duration than the exposure time required for artwork on film positive or a photo based image printed out in grayscale using an inkjet printer. Tip: I set the inkjet printer to print using a black ink only option. I have an Hewlitt-Packard printer). Some printers do not have this option for black ink only as I learned with an older Epson model. That used to create a blue black from mixing colours and my images did not expose very well. For solar plate purposes I have found that a true opaque black will yield the best results, either from inkjet cartridge or india ink on acetate,etc...

blacklights engaged inside the exposure box

a plate that already was developed being post-exposed to ultra-violet light from the blacklights mounted in the unit. The post exposure cures the polymer and hardens it so that it can be used over and over to produce prints on paper.


Artwork and creating a positive on film

I had a few sketches and photo references I made of tiny blue-eyed grass blossoms I had encountered on one of my nature walks here in the region last summer.

Using a pencil sketch on paper and overlaying a clear piece of Dura-lar wet media acetate I traced the sketch in pen and ink and added background using washes of Pelikan Tusche ink with brush and water dilution. The washes would add in an interesting background with textural elements.

pen and ink/tusche wash positive (left), original pencil sketch (right)


step one: the positive was exposed to a aquatint screen (30 seconds)

Step two: then the artwork (drawn line and tusche positive) was exposed to the plate for 1 minute.

Step Three: the plate was immersed into tepid water in a metal tray that had a piece of magnetic backing (like that found on a fridge magnet business card) to hold the plate steady. Using a soft bristle toothbrush and a back and forth scrubbing motion I gently removed the areas of polymer where I wanted the etch to happen.  I scrubbed my plate for about 1.5 minutes in duration.       

                                                                                                              The chemical reaction that occurs from blocking areas of the plate with opaque elements (artwork) during exposure is what allows those areas to etch in the surface of the polymer when it is scrubbed in a water bath.

Step Four: remove the plate from the bath. Blot the plate surface quickly with a piece of newsprint and then dry the plate surface with a short blast of warm air from a portable hand held hair-dryer.

Step Five: set the plate either under the exposure box or in the sun and let it post-expose for 5 to 10 minutes. This will harden the polymer and cure it making the etched lines and pitted areas permanent and ready for printing.

Step Six: apply ink to the plate as you would to a traditionally etched plate by wiping it into the surface so that the ink is contained in the below surface lines, wipe away excess ink off the surface. Start your printing process by putting dampened rag paper over top of the inked plate and then by passing the plate under the roller of an etching press print your plate.

top: pencil sketch (left) and ink positive (right)
bottom: inked plate (left) and print on rag from plate (right)

I decided to experiment and incorporate colour to one of prints using a film based monotype. The protective plastic film that covered the plate was re-used as a surface to paint on modified Akua intaglio inks. I had first peeled it off the unexposed solar plate and had set it aside. It was the exact same dimensions as the plate itself. I saw this as an opportunity to use as a surface to be used to create a colour monotype and print on paper then print the single colour plate over top.

Using a scrap piece of glass I lay down small swatches of ink that were each mixed with a drop of Akua blending medium. This made the inks more fluid.
I inked the plate first with carbon black ink (modified with a little mag mix powder to stiffen the ink). I set the plastic over top of the inked plate.
Using the inked plate as a guide and with a soft bristle taklon brush I painted thinned inks onto the surface of the plastic. 

Once I had all the areas painted I wanted this plastic plate was carefully removed. I placed the plastic plate face up on my press bed and set a piece of dampened rag paper over top. Setting my roller to light pressure I ran the plate and paper through the roller and was left with a undefined colour image.
I took the inked solar plate and using careful registration set it inked side down facing into the monotype. I very carefully flipped this over making sure that the plate didn't shift and set it down with the inked side facing upward on the press bed. The paper was laying over top. I brought down the felts and covered everything. I  adjusted the pressure of the roller to a tight squeeze for printing an intaglio plate and ran everything through the press again.

protective plastic peel-away film being used as a surface for creating a colour monotype using thinned Akua intaglio inks

close up of application of thinned Akua ink with brush onto clear plastic plate set on top of the inked solar plate

the monotype that resulted from application of modified inks onto the clear acetate film plate

the inked solar plate was carefully registered over the colour monotype image on the rag paper and printed into the monotype to add in the definition

The last of this school year's art projects through my Artist in Education placements

grade four student painting his low relief study relating to undersea life

I finally collected up and have put together a public display of completed artwork from two classrooms I visited from April/May at St. James Public School here in Thunder Bay. 
This is being hosted by the Waverley Library in our cities northcore business district.

The first display is a collection of 19 mix-media works created by senior kindergarten and grade one students from the classroom of D. Madunic. They used drawing, painting, collage, stamping to explore a regional geographic feature known as the Sleeping Giant. We started by drawing shapes and working out a composition on paper board. 

pencil sketch on board

applying the paint

The next step was to apply colour and texture into the drawing using paint. I asked them to think about animals and plants that might be found around the region and put some of these into the studies. Paper shapes were cut out and glued onto the board. Finally they drew plants and animals into soft foam plates which had been attached to cut squares of cardboard. Water based relief printing ink was rolled onto the foam and these were stamped strategically into areas of their storyboard.

This project worked well as it had them continuously engaged in hands-on activity during each visit.
In expensive all media paper board was used as the surface onto which the artwork was translated onto.
I had originally intended for them to apply some low relief sculpting medium to the boards, but these ended up as a side project since many of these were too heavy to attach onto the boards.

red fox created from air dry sculpting medium and water-based paint

The second project was with the grade 3/4 classroom of teacher 
D. Mayotte. Her students paired mental imagery from a choice of four poems they had recently read with three dimensional low relief paintings on panel.

Students drew sketches in pencil on paper. These papers with drawings were glued onto precut masonite panels. Using air dry sculpting medium they built up shapes on the panel using the sketch as their template. The sculpting medium as bonded to the panel surface using white glue and brushes.

Once these were set acrylic paint was applied to both the low relief shapes and the background. Finally the students wrote short statements to accompany each of their paintings.

Grade 5 + 6 Drypoint Self-portrait Project

During the months of March/April I visited 3 classrooms at St. Elizabeth Catholic Elementary School in Thunder Bay and took on a visual art project (intaglio printmaking + wet media) with over a total of 70 students.
In the fall of 2014 I had presented a six-sided You Cube print project in two other schools. That project used carved relief surfaces to produce multiple images (portraits on paper) in various contrast colour combinations. Those images were pasted onto the sides of a constructed six-sided cardboard cube. I saw an idea in Pinterest titled You Cube and decided to adapt this to using printmaking as the medium since it would create multiple images with greater ease than other mediums.

This time I decided to switch techniques to incorporate intaglio using drypoint on thin acrylic plates as the matrix. Students were asked to create sketches on paper from their self-portraits and then translate these onto the plastic plates using etching needles. Ink was wiped into the scratched line and the plates were printed onto heavy cotton rag paper using a small manually turned etching press that I supplied.

I supplied 25 home-made etching needles. Fortunately it worked out that I had different visits with each class at different times and the needles were brought from one classroom to another so everyone got the opportunity to have a tool to use.

We used Akua carbon black intaglio ink to make the print onto the paper. Prints were attached to the top of each print using green painters tape to attach onto both sides of the large sheets of corrugated cardboard (used to construct their cubes from). The were propped up against walls and allowed several days to dry. 

Then the prints were attached onto plasticore boards again using the green painters tape. Students applied colour to each print with wet media that included watercolour and tempera. 
Colour renderings were accomplished in three approaches, using one of the following for each print

• realistic flesh tone in watercolour with a background
• flat even colour in either watercolour or tempera
• fantasy portrait (they were given a few trays of iridescent and fine glitter watercolour to use if they so chose)

These were trimmed and using liquid white glue were attached to the surface of a their 6 sided cube. An additional panel was created using their initials and a zentangle background in dry media. One side of the box was left unhinged to use as a door or lid.

Two of the teachers decided to have their students incorporate a small painted sculpting clay based figure and place these inside the box.

Two weeks back I picked these up from the school and put up a display at two separate branches of the Thunder Bay Public Library. These will be up for a couple of weeks.