I Don't Want the Day To End

Here's a photo of one of the etchings I printed yesterday. A great deal of the color mostly in the corners is due to false biting. That's what happens when the ferric chloride gets under the asphaltum ground and bites the plate. Little pits are made which then hold ink. Some irregularities in the print are nice, but the ones I printed yesterday have too many. I will try to repair some of it, as much as I can.

The etching process involves a number of steps and there is room for error everywhere. I have definitely learned from my current etching and printing activities. Since this is the first time I've performed the process on my own, not in the classroom, I have had various differences to adjust to. I have done almost no etching on copper until now, only once. In that particular case, I also had a problem with false biting. So when I use copper, I need to apply the asphaltum ground more thickly. I also learned from my printing experience yesterday that I want to make sure my ink is not too thick or it will cause the very fine lines to run together into a solid shape. I don't want that to happen.

And the other amazing thing is that the little pieces of brass that I printed turned out to have very crisp clean lines and there was no false biting whatsoever. My friend point out the fact that it might be the way I applied the ground, which is true, but I want to investigate using brass for printing.

Then it occured to me that I could take a rather heavy piece of brass that I have and make a nice etched sign for my studio door. Spanish Village requires us to post our hours of operation in our window. I have no window that a visitor could look in through, but I could hang a brass sign on the door itself. So that's a new project for me.

While I was sitting at my worktable this afternoon, a man walked by and then stopped. He was the original City worker who patched the holes in the walls of my studio. He was working on one of the other studios across the patio, and he came over to see me. We talked for awhile, and I told him that I have noticed how much more productive I am now that I have the studio. Because I'm required to be there for five hours per day, five days a week, I have lots of time that I can devote to my artwork. And that makes me very happy. In fact, five hours is almost never enough time. I worked until six tonight and would have stayed longer if I didn't have other commitments that I felt I needed to meet.

This coming Thursday is Fourth Thursday, and my parents are coming to see my studio on Friday, so I'm motivated to straighten things up some. Usually, I just want to work on my art, but I really need to do some housekeeping, including putting things away, moving the track lights, and hanging the mirror I brought from home. And maybe I'll have time for my door sign and to paint the door itself. So much to do.