P-1 and P-2: Crayon Bands

We are now reaching the midway point of our first projects, so I figured I should tell you about them.

First, we had to prepare a stone and a plate to draw on. For the stone, this involved clearing the image surface with grinding as shown by Valpuri here:



With the surface polished and the image removed, some of us had to bevel the edges of our stone. Beveling the edge helps to keep ink and sponge debris from collecting on the perimeter of the stone while printing. Most people still use rasps and files and sandpaper, but if you have a severe edge on your stone you can also use a belt sander or something similar. Here is Ana playing with power tools (note the dust mask and eye protection):



And here is Celina doing some sandpaper work on the edge of her stone:



Since the plates are only used once, they will ideally be ready to use right out of the package... but that's usually not the case. To prepare them, we cut them to size and then used a counter etch solution to clean the dirt off.

Projects one and two are exercises in etching various shades and applications of litho crayons. Stones Litho crayons range from soft and dark blacks(#1) to hard and light blacks (#5). Because of the variations in grease and texture, a #3 crayon drawn over a #1 crayon will react differently than a #3 by itself. In order to print the image the way it appears on the stone, it is often necessary to apply different etches to different areas, depending on the drawing materials used.

To help familiarize us with these variations, we created a grid on both our stone and our plate. The grid was first created on mylar and then traced onto the stone/plate with iron-oxide transfer paper. It is possible to draw the grid directly on the stone but the mylar helps eliminate mistakes in measuring and placement.

With the grid in place, we started filling in the boxes with grayscales in each crayon (#1-5). Once the grayscales were completed in one direction, we did them again in the opposite direction, so that some of the bands overlapped.

Here is my stone, about a third of the way drawn on:



And here is Mick, working on his stone:



And here is Ana, drawing on her plate:



Once a few people completed their drawings, Rodney gave us demos on how to etch the stones with various mixtures of gum and acid:



Of course, he made it look easy.

Etching the stone helps to pull the grease molecules from the drawing materials into the stone so that those areas will accept ink. It also helps to desensitize the borders and non-image areas so that they will accept water and not ink when printing. Gum arabic is usually used by itself or in conjunction with other acids to etch the stone. A "hotter" or stronger etch is usually used in the greasier areas, a weaker etch is used in lighter areas. If a strong etch is used in a light areas, there is risk of "burning out" or losing the drawing. If a weak etch is used in a darker area there is a danger of the image "filling in" or getting darker than you wanted. A good printer will recognize the different etches and applications needed for the perfect print.

Today, most of the student printers finished drawing and putting a first etch on the stones and plates. Tomorrow, we will do a second etch and begin the proofing process.