Stone lithography: drawing, etching and small edition printing

I print lithographs from stone, and the work always begins with the slab rather than the drawing. The old image is ground away with a second stone, sharp sand and water, moving in long figure eights until the surface is flat and carries an even grain. That grain decides everything: a coarse tooth gives a crumbly, open stroke, a fine tooth holds velvet halftones and long gradients. I grain the stone to suit your hand, not to suit my convenience at the press.

The drawing is made with greasy lithographic crayon and tusche: solid blacks, brushed washes, scraped highlights, tonal passages that no other technique gives in quite the same way. Then comes the etch, a weak acid mixed with gum arabic. It bites no relief at all. It fixes the grease inside the pores and leaves the bare stone hungry for water, and that is the whole trick of the craft: a damp stone refuses greasy ink, the drawn passages accept it, and the image lives on one perfectly flat surface.

Printing is a rhythm. Sponge, roll, sponge, roll. The leather roller charges the image, the paper is damped to an even limpness so that it takes the ink without stretching, the scraper bar comes down on the tympan and the bed goes through under pressure. The first sheets are proofs: by them I set pressure, ink stiffness and the amount of water, and only then do I sign off on the edition. A well etched stone will carry fifty to a hundred honest impressions before the finest crayon grain starts to wear, and I tell you plainly where your drawing sits on that scale before we start.

What the job includes:
— grinding and graining the stone for the chosen manner of drawing;
— the drawing in crayon and tusche from your sketch or artwork;
— etching with gum arabic and preparation for the press;
— trial proofs, choice of paper and adjustment of pressure;
— hand printing of the edition on a scraper press, drying under boards;
— numbering, pencil signature and packing in interleaved sheets.