One of the goals of the Summer workshops held here at Crown Point Press is to help printmakers really improve their plate wiping technique.
For a more detailed look at this process, see Kathan Brown’s appendix in Magical Secrets about Line Etching & Engraving: The Step-by-Step Art of Incised Lines by Catherine Brooks.
Catherine Brooks
In our Workshop Edition of Questions and Advice, former Crown Point master printer Catherine Brooks is working with student Elizabeth McDonald in the final workshop of the summer to improve her drypoint wiping technique. These are Catherine’s favorite….
Tips for wiping drypoint plates:
USE TARLATAN NOT PHONE BOOK PAGES.
When you start wiping a drypoint with the tarlatan, make sure you leave a little bit more ink on the plate than you would for other techniques, this excess helps the ink gather along the sides of the burr.
After tarlatan wiping, use your hand to pull the ink you’ve left on the surface of the plate across the copper to catch on the burr. A semi-circular light caressing motion works well.
Remember to clean the edges of the plate! Now you are ready to print.
Technical Tidbits
Student Hunter Harris was blocking out a portion of his plate with asphaltum. He got a little bit where he didn’t want it and asked Catherine how best to get rid of it.
Catherine’s secret is a bottle of acetone and a Q-Tip snapped in half. You can dip the broken-off, hard end of the Q-Tip in the acetone, and use it to precisely remove your mistake. Then use the fluffy end to finish cleaning up the area. Hunter calls this great technique the “acetone pencil.”
Hunter is delighted with this trick, and crows, “ The control freak has his day!!”
The Acetone Pencil (Fixing)
The Acetone Pencil (Finishing)
Here is another aid to perfect work:
Student Rita Miller is using the bridge (a wooden bar raised about an inch off the table) to keep her asphaltum work free from smudging.
The Anti-Smudge Bridge
Founded in 1962
