Living Prints Mezzotint On-line

Burnishing

The burnisher is a hardened-steel tool with a curved, polished round end like a spoon. Burnishing is like drawing white on black with white pencil or chalk, as on dark paper. An intaglio-printed mezzotint plate requires that the artist polish the plate in the non-printing areas. Where there is no plate texture, there is nothing to trap the printing ink during the wiping of the plate (preparation to print). Rollers in a high pressure printing press print the plate, leaving an impression of the ink on paper. Non-printing portions of the plate are scraped, burnished and polished. This will not print, of course, leaving the color of the paper--usually white.

If you are a newcomer to Living Prints On-line, you may find yourself at the middle of the plate-making process. Back-track or get other snapshots of the processes by selecting highlighted key words and images. If you want to go back to the first steps, select here.

• Above: The burnishing tool, of the kind that has a wooden handle. The scraper, too, has a wood handle, but stores sell the scraper and burnisher as a combination too. There are several designs used in burnishers and scrapers made by different manufacturers. Below, the burnishing should be done with a drop of oil or kerosene as lubrication. Not shown here is the occasional polishing of the burnisher's working face with rubbing or polishing compound, as there is a build-up of oxide and residues on the burnisher that turns it into a scratchy tool if not polished off.
  
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Select the highlighted word, scraper, to see a snapshot of this tool. In making a mezzotint, the scraping, burnishing and polishing are used in any appropriate order. There is no one fixed, best way of using these tools in the making of a creative, fine art mezzotint. Some artists and craftspeople are using power tools, too, to grind, scrape, burnish and polish the highlights and tints into the metal plates. Plastic plates--such as acrylic and styrene-- are being used as alternatives to metal.

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