It has been awhile since I've made an Intaglio print, not because I don't like the marks it creates. It is because I love lithography and working on stone. However, since I no longer have access to a lithography press. I needed to adjust.
I did buy an epic press that was made maybe around 1860! I have named her Madeline because she is french and a little mischievous (I learned this while putting her back together with my husband-a piece we here struggling with sudden clicked into place after he directed some color language towards her). She was made in Paris. Needless to say, she does not do lithography, so hence my adjusting back to intaglio.
My printmaking press, Madeline. Please excuse my mess underneath her...I'm pretty sure that she isn't happy about it.
Intaglio print uses a sheet of etched metal as the matrix to print editions from, instead of a stone (like lithography), and results in much different marks. Intaglio can make marks similar to lithography with lift grounds, but this requires acid to etch the plate, which is something I am currently lacking.
Going back to dry point etching, engraving the plate by hand with a steel tool, after using acid etching was very humbling for me, and has strongly encouraged me to invest in some acid to etch my future Intaglio plates! Nonetheless, I think I have finally gotten this new piece to a place that I am happy with.
Grandmother with New Moons
I have used watercolor and other printmaking techniques to infuse my prints with color in the past, and I certainly tried them ALL with this print. However, they just weren’t achieving what I had envisioned in my mind…this is not a new problem for me. Eventually, I tried pastels, which I haven’t used with my prints before and I loved it!
This is why printmaking so awesome! Since I have created the matrix to print from, which in the case of Intaglio is a piece of etched metal, I can mess around with creating different prints all I want; changing colors, techniques, paper, etc. Plus, printmaking creates awesome effects that I can’t create with drawing or painting. Check out the soft fuzzy line work and gray smudges in the “white” areas of my print to see what I mean.