I had been reading some jewellery making books and been fascinated by the etching onto metal they use for decorative purposes; rather than for printmaking purposes. So I pulled out a ratty old piece of copper we had - totally patina-ed green on top, and thought I'll pop it in the acid bath and see what happens. I first wrote the letter onto the metal with Hiro's fabulous 'writing on metal wax pencils'; then I wrote over it with stop out bitumen. I also 'stopped out' the back of the plate a bit, and then let it dry over night.
Today I made an acid bath and popped the letter in. At 1:3 (acid:water) it was very slow going; so I pumped it up to 2:3 and it started moving. It was hard work for the acid to get thru all the patina sitting on top of the plate but after about 20 minutes I liked the result.
I am learning so much through these little challenges!
Here it is in the different phases...and a little bit of textured surface from the side.
F Love the blue created as the acid etches; and the contrast of the old patina against the newly etched copper looks great. B
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