Pocked and pitted

Guh! That was my first reaction to the etch. Haha, I kinda like how horrific it is though. That mad slashing in what should be the solid black/unetched areas is the result of using a Sharpie marker to mask off those areas -- but I'll begin at the beginning.

I printed out a test sheet of my chosen image. As per someone's recommendations, I spent a lot of time getting a pleasing halftone bitmap image. I say "a lot of time" because I'm just this side of functional with Photoshop. As it turns out I'm not sure the halftone thing was best. The principle is that the image is made up of many dots, each a solid spot of black, making the etch clearer. I really liked the effect below because it became a pattern of x's and dots. In other instances I can imagine I'd like a little more subtlety. More practice!

I went to my local Kinko's and made a transparency from my test sheet. I figured this was my best option. Since I don't own a laser printer, and I wasn't sure how far I could get in using off-schedule media in their copiers, I elected to use a transparency. As it turns out though, Press N Peel Blue, inkjet paper or glossy magazine pages may be an option for me because the employees don't really want to be bothered.

I went at around 4 o'clock pm and was stunned at how many people were out and about. Not just driving, but walking the streets and inside the store. This is because I work nights so most of my forays into the outside world occur at 12 am or later and thus are usually just include CVS and Denny's. It also reconfirmed how much I hate lazy parents. A woman was having an employee re-copy a photo of her son (?) in full military dress and her two children were actually wrestling on the floor just behind her. Ugh. EDITED TO ADD: BTW, how freakin' cheap is that? Your photo is so important, the first copy was just too green, why couldn't you have sprung for actual photo paper?

Anyway, then I checked out both Home Depot and Lowe's, looking for anything with copper sulphate in it. No luck. I keep thinking those places are so big they must be hiding cool stuff somewhere inside but I'm always disappointed. I'll have to try the smaller hardware stores in town. I'm just so fucking tired of buying things from the internet. I'm glad for the ease, the variety, the exposure to things I never would have found but sometimes I'd like to just be able to go to the store and get what I want that very day. EDITED TO ADD: Ha, as it turns out I can have 2 lbs. of Root Killer containing copper sulphate delivered to my home for $28.40

Then, I went to Barnes & Noble (are you detecting a pattern? I must live in suburbia) and checked out their clip art section. Some of the royalty/permission free books said any images may be used up to ten times for crafts and some of the newer books said something even more vague. I'm not anywhere close enough to consider selling anything but I though it'd be good to inform myself. I know a couple artists and I know how devastated they'd be if anyone was using their art without permission, not to even mention how they'd feel if someone sold it.

I gave that all up and went home. I cut out one of the images and after positioning it on the tin I set to ironing. I quickly saw that wasn't going to work. I have a blurred photo that was supposed to show that the toner wasn't adhering to the tin. I dumped out the water in the iron and cranked it up all the way past Linen. After that it seemed to go okay. The transparency melted just a bit but I pressed hard and smoothed it out for 2-3 minutes. I didn't get good coverage in the large black areas and attempted (unsucessfully) to substitute with Sharpie. Next time I'll try harder with the iron or give it up entirely. EDITED TO ADD: I also put electrical tape around the sides because I didn't want them to get etched. The sides have a black, sticky residue on them now.

I set up my workspace, the back doorstep, and this time reversed the process I had used to clean the tin from negative on the work piece to positive. I didn't like the way the paper towel had dissolved so I tried to use a piece of fabric but didn't like how that was trapping air *breathes* so I went back to the paper towel. The fabric was probably fine.

I left it to etch for a few minutes, and then five, and then five more. I was dissatisfied with the process, nothing seemed to be happening. And to make it even worse it seemed as though the Sharpie was coming off in the solution. Well, as it turns out there was just a film over the unmasked areas. This was probably plating from my unvarnished cathode because good god, I was definitely etching. Geez, I must have left it etching for 40 minutes.

I used steel wool to remove the toner and the film and revealed the first image. It's seriously pitted and kinda scary but I can't help but feel a little proud. Good thing I have another surface to practice on, huh?