Etching + Acid + Japanese Papers

 Printed on Hahnemuhle paper. This paper was too heavy for the image and the colors were too explicit for what I wanted to achieve. The lines were too strong also. I do like the blurring and merging of tone so this will be a useful experiment for future work. I have decided to keep the plate one color and just use aquatint only to create imagery.

 I have set up the Nitric Acid at home. I can use it safely outside and move my work along and a faster pace than one workshop day a week ! I have gloves, mask and goggles for added safety

 This plate is processing outside. The acid strength was topped up and working nicely. I feel more confident to do 'spit bite' and mix up stronger acid. Brian ( the technician ) said, ' Never give acid a drink'. This is such a good thing to remember as acid will blow up and react if you DO add water to it!

 The processed plate after several immersions in the acid.

 Plate inked and polished ready for printing. Decided to use grey shades and alot of white.

 The outcome of the second print. I increased the density of color and tone to get more of a sense of drama into the imagery. The edges are torn and generally this image with its textures and divisions worked relatively well.

Experimented further with a second plate over the top allowed me to incorporate the circles as a flat representation of the sphere. I am especially enjoying printing on Japanese paper. It represents the imagery well and allows for fragility and textures to emerge.