Loon study - solar plate with chine-collé

Togetherness

solar plate etching / chine-collé

image size: 5 x 9 cm (2 x 3.5 in.)

paper size: 13 x 18 cm ( 5 x 7 in.)

open edition

copyright Brian Holden 2010

I recently had the rare opportunity to get in close proximity to a pair of loons who were swimming & feeding along shore in a lake located in Quetico Park here in Northwestern Ontario.  I had my Canon digital camera in hand and from behind some foliage got quite a few good shots of the pair.
One of the photo studies served as the inspiration for this new piece that I have titled "Togetherness".
It was created by first working the image on my pc and then transferring it in grayscale onto an inkjet transparency using black inkjet ink. I exposed the small piece of solar plate (5 x 9 cm or 2 x 3.5 inches) to an aquatint screen for 3 min and 30 sec which was followed by the actual image positive for the same time duration. Then the plate was developed with water and post cured again with UV light.

After inking and printing some proofs off the plate I decided it would look nice with the addition of a colour into the water. I just happened to have a small sheet of blue colour tengujo kozo paper (about 8 g in weight...a very thin and delicate handmade paper from the Orient). This paper came as part of a sample pack that I purchased from the Japanese paper place in Toronto. My thanks to Leah for her assistance and for choosing a great array of papers for me to try out.

I made a tracing of the loons onto drafting film and laying this over top of one of my earlier black and white proofs. I marked the corners of the blue kozo to the same configuration of the corners of the plate. A piece of black carbon paper was then carefully inserted between the tracing and the kozo and I drew over the tracing again which transferred the outline to the blue paper in the carbon ink. I then carefully cut the shapes out using a fine tip xacto knife.

The kozo then had a fine sprinkling of wheat paster powder applied (salt shaker with a piece of cheese cloth under the lid to diffuse in a fine powder) and then it was lightly misted with water. I carefully set the damp kozo on top of the inked plate (inked with Graphic Chemical Intense black oil based etching ink) and using a bamboo skewer I was able to move the paper and position it exactly to line up with the corners of the plate.

Soaked and blotted white Johannot 250 gsm paper was set over top, followed by a sheet of newsprint and finally three wool felts. The plate, paper and blankets were then passed under the roller of my etching press.

The pressure bonded the kozo to the Johannot paper and also picked up the inked fine lines from the plate.

A few of the black and white etchings that did not have the kozo applied have been hand tinted with watercolour such as the framed print below. Although this series is an open edition I am still marking each with a V.E. in pencil signifying varied edition.