Soap Ground on Steel

Plate prep was important. Steel has its own ‘tooth’ so white does not exist on the plate and produces a grey tone. To lighten this, sanding with Wet & Dry paper 400 grit prior to etching lifts the tone. The plate was thoroughly degreased

Soap ground was then applied as per the previous copper plate.

Etching the plate for X minutes gave the above result. This was very much a surprise. The whites had been successful but the blacks in the main stones and onto the ground were lost. The areas that had not been touched by any logons should have etched black but in my case they opted for a mid grey.

Using Wet and Dry again I polished it lightly. This raised the whites and brought out some of the detail in the darker areas.

The plate was a surprise. But a good one. Slightly solarised and definitely worth printing as an embossed relief print. (To come later).

I printed this plate in two tone inks but it just looked crap. However, taking the digital image that I had used for reference and printing it as a Chine Colle background gave the whole image a totally painterly and water coloured feel.

There is a level of abstraction through the mismatch of etched plate to background, but this I can enjoy.

Next step? I would like to work on the whole strip of stones this way….