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Last year, I experimented with a new medium: etching. The traditional form of etching involves using resists before using acid to etch a copper plate. Instead, I used a different method of physically etching a plastic plate and then printing with that. Etching, a form of printing, was commonly used to reproduce fine artworks, particularly in early scientific literature- an inspiration of mine.
Details of the method will be included in part 2.
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| Sketchbook extract: inspiration |
My first etching was of wood vetch (Vicia sylvatica). This etching was on a square plastic plate and was a direct etch of the dried and pressed plant. One useful feature of using plastic is that it is transparent allowing for the etching of pressed specimens without printing photographs, while getting a completely accurate representation.
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| Left: the original etching, right: a faintly coloured version using watercolour |
Additionally, to the plant, I added text. This was printed out reversed, so that when I was etching the plate, tracing the print out, the print would be the correct way around.
For my next piece I wanted to experiment more with different textures as well as text, which I thought worked effectively in the first piece. I had recently been fossil hunting at a local Carboniferous limestone quarry. The limestone is interbedded with a black shale, which reveals a variety of beautifully, though small, preserved fossils. In total I've found around 15 species, representing a rich fossil assemblage.
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| Details |
I decided to show this fossil assemblage through a reconstruction. Looking back, it was a very crude and rather unscientific reconstruction with little reference to scientific literature.
I was however, pleased with the piece. In particular the feathered arms of the crinoids which gave a fantastic pattern.
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| The full print |
I also experimented with using sandpaper for the first time when etching the plate. Seen in the piece as shadowing, it wasn't particularly effective.
I then decided to do another geologically inspired piece after a trip to Orkney. The rocks of the west Mainland are made up of what once was a Devonian lake, rich in life. They include the famous Sandwick Fish Beds, which I was luckily enough to visit.
I planned to focus this on some of the early scientific artworks, primarily some of the plates from early descriptions of fossils. This meant including text, as well as the possibility of different images included on a single plate.
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| The etched surface (note the reversal) |
After the success of using text, I decided to practice some more (above). The inspiration (below) while recognisably a fish to some, was.... indistinct to others so I decided to separate the piece into two: the whole fossil, as well as a separated, more detailed, section of scale.
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| A plated fish fossil (note the blue colour from exposure) |
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| Details of the print (note the use of sandpaper for shading) |
I wasn't as pleased with this piece as my Early Carboniferous reconstruction. Partly this was because I wasn't happy with the effect of using sandpaper. When etching using sandpaper, the way you move the sandpaper over the plastic creates a very specific direction, and it is very difficult to etch to an edge (such as the rock boundary).
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| The print |
My next two prints weren't as geologically inspired but I included them as they show some improvement.
The white clawed crayfish is an increasingly rare sight in UK rivers, and after finding one I was inspired to create an etching. The beauty of being able to print out photographs is that the etching can be completely true to the original image, however, this technique can limit flexibility.
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| The original photo |
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| The post printing plate |
The final piece is of the lady's slipper orchid. A rarity in the UK, now present to a handful of sites, is a true natural gem.
I was happy with this print, especially the cross-hatching details.
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| The plate |
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| The print |
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