Three Bears (part 2)

This print i.e., of the three bears is still in progress.   I went as far as I could with it (which entailed a lot of trial and error) and then because the deadline for the project was coming up - I  had to put it to one side.      I have had some different ideas as to how I may finish it at a later date.    First and foremost I thought that I would make some aquatint background plates  and then another plate with the bears photo etched.                                                                                                                                                  However things turned out to be far from straight forward.    I made an aquatint using my salad oil spray pump to disperse the lascaux acrylic aquatint spray resist and the other was using car spray.

I asked  Bill,  at FDPW,  to go do the car spray paint job ( as I am horribly sensitive to all toxic fumes which can be generated from the various processes encountered in an open access print workshop. 

These were of course applied to degreased plates / zinc  for the car spray / copper for the pump spray.  The zinc plate was  etched in copper sulphate crystals mordant (with salt).                                                            

I most generally refer to that as"salt etch", and the copper in ferric chloride mordant.   So these are photos of the actual copper plate and then the zinc plate.  It's amazing how calmly and deftly Bill is able to get a lovely velvety spray onto the zinc!!!                                                                                                                                                                       I seem to remember that I proofed both of these before putting them in the mordants I usually do this if it is possible so that I can get an idea of how much of the plate is open to the mordant.                   

I did the proofs at home and forgot with the proof of the zinc plate that I had not put my "good blankets",  on my press so it gave an impression of lines going across the plate and white areas where there were holes in the blanket.  These were from one of my so called 'experiments' with rosary beads ( I think).  So then I had to re do the proof..........what a turkey!