About the service
I am a printmaker working in intaglio on copper, and every sheet I hand over is pulled by me on a press rather than output by a machine. The work begins with the plate itself. I bevel the edges so the paper is embossed and not cut, polish the surface until it holds no scratch I did not intend, degrease it and lay an even acid-resistant ground. Then I draw. The needle does not push the metal aside, it only opens the ground, so the line keeps whatever lightness or nervousness my hand gave it, and most of what the finished sheet will be is decided at this stage.
The bite is a matter of time, temperature and patience. The plate goes into the mordant in stages, and I stop out the passages that are already deep enough, so one sheet can carry a whisper of a line beside a black furrow that holds ink like a trench. For tone I use aquatint: rosin dust fused to the plate and bitten in measured steps, which gives grey fields that stay open instead of turning to mud. All acid work happens under an extraction hood, in gloves and eye protection, with trays kept separate; spent baths are neutralised and handed to a licensed collector rather than poured down a drain.
Proofing is where the plate is really finished. I pull trial impressions, live with them for a day, then go back to the copper with burnisher, scraper and roulette, re-ground and re-bite until the proof says what the drawing promised. You see the proofs and can ask for changes while the plate is still open to them. For printing I use cotton rag paper torn to size and damped for several hours so that under pressure it reaches into the bitten lines. The press is a traditional roller press with felts, run at a pressure I set for that plate and that paper. The edition is printed in one continuous run so the sheets match each other, dried flat under boards, then numbered, titled and signed in pencil. The plate is kept clean and oiled after printing, so a later part of the edition can be pulled to the same standard.
What is included:
— discussion of the image, size and edition length, and a drawing worked out on paper first;
— preparation of the copper plate: bevelling, polishing, degreasing, grounding;
— needle drawing, staged biting, stopping out, aquatint tone where the image asks for it;
— two to three rounds of proofs with reworking of the plate between them;
— paper sizing and damping, printing of the whole edition on a roller press;
— drying, flattening, numbering, titling and pencil signature;
— storage of the plate for later impressions, and packing in acid-free interleaving for shipment.
Typical timing is under two weeks for a plate up to roughly twenty by thirty centimetres and an edition of fifteen to thirty sheets; larger plates, several colours or deep aquatint stages take longer, and I say so before we start.
The bite is a matter of time, temperature and patience. The plate goes into the mordant in stages, and I stop out the passages that are already deep enough, so one sheet can carry a whisper of a line beside a black furrow that holds ink like a trench. For tone I use aquatint: rosin dust fused to the plate and bitten in measured steps, which gives grey fields that stay open instead of turning to mud. All acid work happens under an extraction hood, in gloves and eye protection, with trays kept separate; spent baths are neutralised and handed to a licensed collector rather than poured down a drain.
Proofing is where the plate is really finished. I pull trial impressions, live with them for a day, then go back to the copper with burnisher, scraper and roulette, re-ground and re-bite until the proof says what the drawing promised. You see the proofs and can ask for changes while the plate is still open to them. For printing I use cotton rag paper torn to size and damped for several hours so that under pressure it reaches into the bitten lines. The press is a traditional roller press with felts, run at a pressure I set for that plate and that paper. The edition is printed in one continuous run so the sheets match each other, dried flat under boards, then numbered, titled and signed in pencil. The plate is kept clean and oiled after printing, so a later part of the edition can be pulled to the same standard.
What is included:
— discussion of the image, size and edition length, and a drawing worked out on paper first;
— preparation of the copper plate: bevelling, polishing, degreasing, grounding;
— needle drawing, staged biting, stopping out, aquatint tone where the image asks for it;
— two to three rounds of proofs with reworking of the plate between them;
— paper sizing and damping, printing of the whole edition on a roller press;
— drying, flattening, numbering, titling and pencil signature;
— storage of the plate for later impressions, and packing in acid-free interleaving for shipment.
Typical timing is under two weeks for a plate up to roughly twenty by thirty centimetres and an edition of fifteen to thirty sheets; larger plates, several colours or deep aquatint stages take longer, and I say so before we start.
