Ritchie's Video 'N Print, A Division of Emeralda Works, 500 Aloha #105 Seattle, WA 98109

Intaglio Plate Making - 1972

Featuring Bill Ritchie and Seth Polanski in 1972

Summary: Artist/teacher Bill Ritchie set out to record his demonstrations as soon as a practical, portable video system was available. This is the first time a color portable camera was available. Seth Polanski, an art history student, helped with the demonstrations.

The program begins with an image of Bill Ritchie recorded almost fifteen years after the original taping took place in a studio at the University of Washington. He opens the tape by emphasizing his reason for putting the printing first and the making of intaglio plates second—like putting the cart before the horse for a good reason: It helps the viewer understand why he works over the printing plate the way he does.

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Bill Ritchie: Hi. My name is Bill Ritchie and I want to introduce you to my videotape, Intaglio Plate Making. Intaglio printing means that the ink comes from etched or engraved grooves in the plate, or from textures in the plate.

The other three printing processes are stencil, relief and planographic printing. This video shows you the printing of the plate to help you understand the object of the techniques for making the plate.

Following this fast introduction to printing, you’ll see how the plates are made. (Title rolls)

Seth Polanski: I’m Seth Polanski. This is the intaglio press. We have arranged three felts, in various orders. There’s a thin one on the bottom and it gets thicker as it goes along. The Upson board (trade name for a paper hardboard, a building material) plate has been placed on the bed of the press, and in the actual printing process—with paper—it would be ready to go.

Bill Ritchie: The inks are in all colors, and black, and are extremely viscous.

The papers that we use for printing are 100 percent rag papers and are dampened long before they are used to give them flexibility and pliancy.

The very first step to do in preparing a metal plate for printing is to clean the plate with Eldorado Cleaner (trade  name for a highly toxic, tuluol-based solvent no longer used because it is a health and environmental hazard).

The ink is applied next, this time with a little chipboard [trade name for a paper product also known as “mat board” or “Davey board”]. After the plate is completely covered with this ink, it’s moved to a hotplate.

The increase in temperature lowers the viscosity of the ink and makes it easier for the wiping process, which follows.

Tarlatan (a fabric of starched cotton sometimes used in sewing to stiffen collars, etc.) is used in a circular motion, usually, and the plate is slowly brought out so that the image can be seen. This takes quite a long time.

At the end of the process, the final touches are put on by hand until the artist is satisfied that the image is up full.

A collagraph plate is first primed with a little kerosene, and then ink is applied with a little scrub brush—scrubbing ink well into the textures. After the plate is completely covered with ink—the texture is full of ink, now—wiping is begun.

This time [wiping the plate is done]—instead of tarlatan—using a cotton cloth. This is continued in all directions until the image comes up.

Seth Polanski: (Shown with a large printing roller, coated in yellow ink, in his hands, over the plate Ritchie has just finished showing, he says:) At this point it’s easy to add a second color by utilizing the relief qualities of the plate.

Bill Ritchie: Relief printing is usually associated with linoleum prints and woodcuts.

Seth Polanski: Now that the plates are ready to printed for this demonstration we move back to the printing press itself.

Bill Ritchie: The felts are folded up behind the roller, the plate is placed in the center of the press bed, and the rag printing paper is taken out of its damp book.

Felts are put back . . . (scene of the press operation and the felts come out the other side) . . . the felts are taken back and the proof is pulled. After each printing, the plate may be cleaned with Eldorado Cleaner or—if you’re printing immediately—begin the re-inking process.

To print a collagraph, the plate is placed on the press bed (and) fine paper is taken from the damp book, felts are placed—this time using a special thick felt—intended only for collagraph printing . . . (scene of the press operating and the proof coming out the other end of the press bed) . . . and the proof is pulled.

Ritchie appears again and comments on the basics of plate making—he calls them “destructive” and “constructive” methods.

Bill Ritchie: These scenes were recorded in 1971. Basically, intaglio work hasn’t changed since the techniques were invented. They began with engraving and etching on bone and shell, wood and metal.

I call these “destructive processes because they involve scratching and eating away on surfaces to make an image. Then, about a hundred years ago, artists began to use what I call the “additive” or constructive methods. In printmaking, the collagraph—the collage print.

(the 1971 tape resume with artworks from current -students’ portfolios selected from his printmaking classes).

(Voice over of) Bill Ritchie: On the screen you see prints from intaglio plates made by my students and by myself in the early ‘seventies—using the techniques in the demonstrations coming up.

This is an etching, engraving and drypoint by Seth Polanski, done on a zinc plate. The color is a chine collé—collage—onto the print.

And this is an engraving I did, on copper, which you saw being printed in the printing demonstration.

This is a collagraph by C. T. Chew, printed intaglio, with color rolled on in relief.

This is an etching by Norie Sato, with rolled-on relief colors and planographic colors included by chine-collé.

A deeply bitten plate was used to make this print. It’s by Christine Lamb. One of the colors was rolled on relief.

And these are aquatint etchings of mine on copper and zinc plates for some of the colors. I also used drypoint and roulette mezzotint—and soft ground.

Now you’re going to see demonstrations in intaglio plate making.

Bill Ritchie: Copper is by far the most favored metal for the so-called destructive processes. Zinc is probably second. Some of the cheaper metals are galvanized iron, aluminum, and a copper-clad plastic.

Every plate has to be beveled before beginning to use it. The beveling can be done with either a file or a scraper. I’ll use a file for this demonstration, showing that the filing should be done from below, and up. The purpose of the bevel is to protect the felts on the press later on, when it goes under the roller.

Drypoint is probably the most spontaneous of all destructive plate processes. It’s very much like drawing on the plate with a needle or a cutting tool. One such tool is a mat knife.

This is a drypoint needle, designed for the purpose of drypoint. But, really, any kind of tool can be used. By rubbing a little bit of black ink into the work, an artist can see how his work has progressed.

Another process to destroy that original surface is by the application of acids. You can get more control by putting an acid resistant coating on the plate and then breaking through it.

The first of these techniques I’ll describe is called the hard ground. Most grounds require a process called degreasing, which is to place a little whiting (a form of calcium carbonate sold by printmaking suppliers) on the plate and then a little bit of acetic acid solution, diluted. The plate is washed all over, and then rinsed in water.

After the plate is dry, a dilute solution of asphaltum is painted on the plate, and when that’s a satisfactory thickness, it’s baked on a small hotplate. The idea is to heat it evenly all over until little vapors are seen to rise. [Safety note, the vapors are carcinogenic, and must not be breathed).

The plate is cooled [in a cool water bath]. If it’s been properly done the surface of the plate is very smooth and will not “chirp” or “chatter” when it’s rubbed with the finger. Drying the water off the plate shows you a very hard, durable finish which can only be broken by metal tools such as this etch—this drypoint needle or substitute tools. Or, solvents—a little Eldorado Cleaner, for example, removes the ground in an interesting fashion.

From here it’s taken to the etching bath. The acid can be applied with a dropper as before only this time it’s confined only to the area that the artist wishes to etch. Or if he wants an over-all etch, he can simply immerse it in the pan of acid. (Safety note, use gloves and ventilation when acids are in use).

All these processes depend on an acid resist of some sort. This can even be found in the form of Contact paper (trade name for self-adhesive plastic sheets sold as kitchen shelf lining material) or plastic shelf covering paper. The entire plate can be covered with this Contact paper and then windows can be cut out. Other acid resists can be combined with it, such as aquatint, which we’re going to demonstrate next.

Using a mat knife, these areas can be cut out to reveal the original surface of the plate. All the areas that have the contact paper still covering them will be completely protected from any kind of acid action.

We’ll be using quite a few different kinds of stop-out on this plate, the main one being aquatint. This is of course the asphaltum etch ground again. The third of these stop-out varnishes is the rosin-based varnish, which is lump rosin dissolved in alcohol. It’s very slow drying, but extremely effective for stopping-out the action of acid.

These liquid grounds have to be baked, (it) speeds up the drying and makes them completely impervious to acid.

There are two ways to apply aquatint. Aquatint is a fine rosin powder and can be put on with a jar with a nylon stocking stretched over the top and shaked on like salt.

This gives the artist a little more control as to how the aquatint ground goes on. Another way is an aquatint box. Inside is the aquatint powder, rosin. The box is shaken once and then the plate is inserted. This is used when you want a very even, over-all coating of aquatint.

Whether you use a shaking device or a box, the aquatint has to be fused to the plate—again, with the little hotplate. This forms a speckle, or a dot pattern of very fine, acid-resistant bubbles. By watching the crystals, one sees them gradually melt and adhere themselves to the plate.

Still another way to achieve the aquatint effect is by spraying. This is tough enamel. Or, a lacquer spray could be used as well.

The zinc plate is going to be placed in a dilute solution of nitric acid (caution—this s a very dilute solution, about 10 parts water to one part nitric acid) to etch the aquatint. To keep the acid moving over the plate, the little bubbles that are formed are caused to break periodically.

And the action will continue until a very rough texture is built up.

We’re describing these processes of putting on acid resistant grounds—liquid grounds, spray grounds, dusted-on rosin and so forth. This one is rolled on. It’s called soft ground. It comes in ball form, and the plate is heated so that the ball melts, little by little.

And then it’s smoothed, with a brayer, while the plate is still hot. This distributes the ground evenly. The plate is left to remain on the hotplate for just a few moments until the ground achieves a certain sheen. This shows that it’s completely covered. Then the plate is cooled. Even at this point, you can begin working. Which makes it a very flexible ground with which to work.

Even an ordinary pencil can be used to disturb this ground. It’s called “soft ground” because it never does harden. It contains a great amount of Vaseline (trade name for petroleum jelly), unlike hard ground.

If the artist decides he doesn’t like what he’s done, he can put it back on the hotplate, cancel out all his drawing, let it sit on the hotplate for a few moments again and start over.

Still another way to use a soft ground is to pick up textures—even a thumbprint—pulls off the soft ground, leaving a perfect impression of the thumb.

Or, the texture of paper can be imprinted by placing the paper over the soft-ground and drawing on it from the back. Another process is to use fabrics, which leaves a definite weave, or woven quality, to the texture. This plate is then etched like any etching plate.

The process which offers the artist a great deal of freedom because it’s very fast and because the artist works directly—that is, what he puts down as black prints black. This is what’s called the lift ground.

Lift ground itself is a solution of sugar and water, a little black India ink added to it so that it becomes more visible, and then the artist paints it on the plate with a brush, or he can use a very fine pens. When the artist is finished, he places it under radiant heat, that is a heat lamps or sunlamps until the lift ground itself has formed a kind of coating or a skin.

So let’s go back to the plate that’s ink—or, uh, that’s etching in the nitric acid bath. The etching might take anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours, depending on the strength of the bath and the effects that the artist wants.

Take it out of the acid and put it in fresh water to neutralize the etching, and then dry the plate. Soon we can see just what the etching has accomplished.

When the plate has dried, the artist can examine the [depth of the] etch with a magnifier if he wishes. Even a reading glass is helpful. This plate has been in the acid now for about an hour, and so there is a considerable etch.

To clean the plate, we take off the contact paper ground, and then we apply Eldorado Cleaner to take off the liquid grounds and the aquatint. Alcohol might be used as well to dissolve the rosin stop-out varnish and the rosin aquatint. When the aquatint . . . all residues have been removed, we go back to the big hotplate and we can apply a little bit of ink and ink our plate as before.

Finish with the hand-wipe, and now we can see on the plate what the image is that we have. Let’s identify some of the effects. This is where Seth splashed on the rosin stop-out. These hard, sharp lines are where he cut the contact paper. And the dark area, in the bottom, is where the aquatint was fused to the plate.

Now to prove our image, looking at the corresponding areas, of where the liquid stop-out varnish was applied, the hard-cut lines of the contact paper, and the dark areas where the aquatint was placed.

Let’s go back to our lift ground now. When it’s ready, the sugar lift . . . or the lift ground . . . has a definite skin, which can’t be disturbed by use of the finger. Now we apply the acid resistant ground to it. This is done by standing it in a tray and pouring the liquid rosin stop-out over the surface.

The entire surface must be covered; all excess drained off and then allowed to dry naturally. When the rosin ground is dry, the plate is put in water, and allowed to soak. After it has soaked for some time, the sugar begins to dissolve underneath the rosin varnish, and it will float away. This can be hastened by gentle brushing. However, you mustn’t be too hasty and force it.

Hot water will expedite the process greatly. And after the plate has exposed from this lift ground we have to put some kind of texture into the exposed areas. This is best done by the aquatint process, either by shaking or by use of the aquatint box.

As before, the aquatint is fused with a small hot plate.

There are a number of tools still available to the artist besides the acids. This, of course, is the etching needle or the drypoint needle we referred to before. One of the most important is the scraper—a three-bladed, hard steel scraping tool for working back into the plate or removing areas of texture. Generally this takes the plate back down to a smooth surface.

If the plate is wanted to be smoother, a burnisher is used in conjunction with the scraper.

A handy tool is the roulette, composed of a small revolving wheel covered with a serrated edge. If this is rolled across the plate, it creates a tone something like an aquatint. One of the more complex tools is the burin, which is used only for engraving. It’s direct, like the drypoint technique, but requires more control and constant sharpening of the tool.

These are all destructive plate processes. Now we shall go into some processes where the opposite is true—in other words the plate is built up. This is mostly called the collagraph technique. It uses materials that are mostly soft, such as paper and hardboard materials, glues, lacquers, plastics, and etcetera.

These are Upson board pieces upon which I can demonstrate, first of all, one of the easiest, or, apparently simplest processes of adding to a plate, and that is a class of materials called the liquid additives. This is white lacquer.

This one you literally pour it on the plate to create differences in surface textures. It can also be brushed, of course. Along with white lacquer, another liquid additive is white glue.

Another class of building up materials are the aggregates. These are anything from sawdust to ground up walnut shells or carborundum. These are attached to the plate by means of glue. Glue is applied and then the walnut shell is sprinkled over the glue . . . the excess poured off. It leaves a line of a textured material, which will of course hold the ink.

Upson board plates can be cut, creating little lines. Later, when they’re sealed with additional coats of lacquer, they become very resistant to abrasion. Or, the laminate of the Upson board can be peeled back revealing, again, a rough texture, which of course will print black—if black ink is used—or color if colored ink is used.

Some flat materials come ready with adhesive surfaces. Masking tape, as an example, to cause a change in the surface of the plate. Brown paper tape, too, can be used.

Collage technique—applying glue, and then a paper or a fabric. The glue should be applied to both surfaces. Otherwise, the effect will be a great deal of warping and curling. I’ve found, too, that if the paper or fabric is dampened before glue is applied, it’s much more likely that you’ll have a nice flat lamination.

Most of these processes require a little bit of reinforcing. Since the Upson board is primarily a paper plate, the surface should be sealed, along with any collage work or glue, and left to dry before the plate is inked up. This ensures a long lasting plate.

Let’s look at the plates we printed earlier—the collagraph plate. The dark area, remember, is very textured. This is the walnut shell ground.

The lighter areas are glue applications, directly over the top of the ground. So you have a rough surface, and a very high, smooth surface. This interior area is the original surface of the board, or the Upson board surface—the natural Upson board surface, with a glue line going across and daubs of white lacquer.

In the next few minutes I’ll show you how to lay this textured, walnut shell ground. First I prime the surface of the Upson board with a damp sponge. This prevents the glue from drying too rapidly. White glue is the primary glue for adhering grounds of all kinds.

Then the glue is rolled out to produce an even layer. You mustn’t be too excessive with the glue. Make certain that the edges are covered. And then the walnut shell is applied thus. You should have a newspaper under the plate. All the extra walnut shell can be poured back into its container.

This is allowed to dry and you’ll have a very heavily textured plate. It’s a good idea to brush clear brushing lacquer over the walnut shells, and also to scrub loose any shell that might want to fall off that hasn’t been completely adhered.

There are a number of ways to work back into this sort for of plate. Obviously, if you printed it just the way it is, you’d be printing a solid area of ink. Therefore, you can go back to your liquid additive materials such as the lacquer . . . or the glue . . ..

(Scene changes to prints). In these plates we see some use of the flat additive materials—the tape, in this case—brown paper tape and masking tape used in combination. Along with that is the destructive technique, where the cuts are made and lamination of the Upson board is ripped away. This last print is composed completely of walnut shell and brown paper tape.

The emphasis on this demonstration has been entirely on plate making. Actually another hour or so could be spent just on the inking processes—the variety of approaches to inking the plates after the surface is built. Or, another hour could be spent on the printing processes—various technique that can be employed at the press.

The artist is probably more concerned with the plate making at the outset than in any of the other steps.

The End

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