The Shop > Metal Stuff
Etching and lithographing
awemawson:
Steve,
Lithography takes it's name from the Greek Lithos - meaning stone. Lithographic prints were originally taken from flat limestone, the surface of which had been treated selectively to absorb or repel inks. At the simplest level it could be a drawing using a wax crayon.
No doubt the surface of lithographic plates demonstrate the same differential quality
vtsteam:
Andrew, yes, traditionally they did use stone plates and lithographic crayons for the image and a weak acid solution combined with gum arabic to etch after the image was drawn. The gum arabic stayed behind on the etched stone face in the white areas and formed the hydroscopic layer. The crayoned areas were hydrophobic and the oil based inks stuck to that.
One major difference in what I've been doing (besides the aluminum plates) is in pre-etching, rather than etching after the image is in place.
Another is using coca cola, which has phosphoric, carbonic, and citric acids, and probably gum arabic as well. Easy to buy a made up solution ready to go!. And the bubbling action does sometimes act usefully to make patterns, or clean up areas when used on a brush, where you may have a stray line or blot.
As I was just writing this my wife said a package had arrived -- and it's gum arabic. I won't be using "real" stone litho plates, however. Not too easy to come by here.
vtsteam:
Now we need somebody to come up with a cheap etching press build!
Joe d:
--- Quote from: vtsteam on January 07, 2016, 11:22:50 AM ---I won't be using "real" stone litho plates, however. Not too easy to come by here.
--- End quote ---
Steve..... Isn`t half of Washington DC made with Vermont marble..... :lol:
Cheers, pot-stirring Joe
tom osselton:
Back in grade 8 art class we used floor tiles that we would carve patterns into that were then inked the paper was just rolled over by hand.
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