How to ETCH a stone
- Begin with a clean stone.
- Place boarder gum on the edges of the stone approximately 1inch wide. Allow for gum to dry.
- Take either- Lithography crayons of 1, 3, 5 softness and draw on the stone, use tousche and make a wash, or use a reductive process to draw on the stone. *(see other post)
- Time to etch- Take three to four small cups and fill them up with straight gum and then take the Nitric Acid and pour in drops according to the hardness or soft ness of the crayon. ** #1 Crayon - 6-7 drops of Nitric acid. #3 Crayon 5-4 drops of Nitric Acid #5 Crayon 2-0 drops of Nitric Acid Alcohol Wash- 0-3 drops of Nitric Acid Water Wash- 2-4 Lithotine Wash- 4-8 drops of Nitric Acid **
- Take Rosin and Talc powders and rub into the stone.
- Cover the the stone in acid in the areas with corrisponding crayons and acids. Cover the lightest part with the lightest acids to avoid the drawing from disappearing. Cover the darkest part with the strongest acids to have those to stay. Cover the white parts with also strong acids to clear any mistakes and imperfections in the stone.
- Wait a minute to let the stone etch with the acid and proceed to stretch down or wipe down the stone with a cheese cloth.
- Clean the stone with lithotine (Put on gloves!)
- Take ashphaultum (Keep your gloves on!) on a paper towel and rub on to the stone until the liquid is even.
- Take a sponge with water and wipe down the stone. your image should return and look the same as it did before you removed the crayon. The Ashphaultum allows the ink to stick on the stone.
- Prepare a slab of ink and roll it up
- wet the stone and roll the roller 3x over the stone to apply ink. Repeat 3 more times.
- Proceed to re-etch the stone with 1/2 the drops of acid in each container of Straight gum
- Re-ink and proceed to printing.
