Working Slowly But Steadily

Here's a detail of one of the etchings I printed last week. Some of the areas where there are outlines only and no pattern will be filled in with aquatint, a process using rosin to create a texture of tiny dots that will hold ink and print an area of tone as opposed to the line you see currently. There are various ways to apply rosin to the etching plate, but the best way is to create a cloudy chamber into which you put the plate and wait for the fine rosin dust to settle on the plate. Then you carefully heat the plate to melt the rosin slightly, causing it to adhere to the plate. Then you put it in the acid and that creates the tone. So that's my plan for my class tomorrow: begin the process of creating aquatint.

Today was a rather slow day. I spent the time inside working at my computer and making some jewelry. Early in the day the network wasn't functioning. At first I decided to just forget about it. But one of the other artists came to ask me about getting on, saying she couldn't get on either. So I went into Southwestern's gallery to check the repeater. It was fine, still plugged in. Then I attempted to reset my computer, but I still couldn't get online. Next I went to check the router and the computer it is attached to, the one in the Spanish Village Board office. That computer was running, but we noticed that the clock was blinking, indicating that there had been a power outage. So I pulled out the router power plug and put it back in. This time when I went back to my studio to try it, it was fine. Thank you Philip for showing me what to do before you went away.

I spent time making two pieces of jewelry with pearls and sterling silver. I had a client ask me for silver jewelry, and I said I didn't make much of it because it tarnishes. However, another artist told me I could rinse the silver in Simple Green to clean it. But I don't know about whether that would bother the pearls, so I made a test necklace and bracelet. I went through all my boxes of loose beads until I found all the different pearls that I have and added one of each. I think it's possible some pearls may hold up better than others.

Nowadays many pearls are dyed, so they may not clean well. I need to find out. I noticed that the hemimorphite that I used on my bracelet has faded. I've had it since Sunday and worn it in the shower each day. It has turned white. I try to find out these things so that I can inform my clients. I don't want to have any surprises nor do I want them to.