SA: Stephen Rosin

The Devil Makes His Christmas Pie Out of Politician’s Tongues and Banker’s Fingers.

Missing

Nyaniso Lindi
Tribute to Noria Mabasa, 2009; Linocut

SA: Phillip Rikhotso

Taken from:

http://elledecoration.co.za/2009/07/philip-rikhotso/

Peter Jackson District 9

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nnv_zjSEVs&feature=player_embedded

Opening this Fri. in Victoria, can't wait to go see it.

Jazz in Jo'Burg

Beautiful pics taken by Christo Doherty: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christopics/page16/

Scraping and Burnishing copper plates

If a line has been etched into a sheet of copper, it will always be a permanent line, unless it is scraped and burnished away. This is like erasing the copper. With the use of a sharp metal scraper (normally these are 3 sided metal tools with a wooden handle, although they can also be a metal handle with a flat metal scraper on the one end, and an etching needle on the other end). The scraper, as the name suggests, will scrape away at the copper, taking away lines and areas that are either too dark, or areas that you just want to change up a bit. The burnisher (normally curved, smooth metal with the wooden handle on one end) will smooth out any areas of the copper by burnishing it (rubbing the burnisher over any lines). Simple methods, just takes a bit of elbow grease and patience to get your desired results.

Etching: Sugar Lift Resist and Recipe

This is similiar to gouache resist if you have ever tried it. Instead of painting with white gouache onto paper, one paints with a mixture made from syrup, black poster paint and liquid detergent (recipe given below) onto a sheet of cleaned copper. Take an ordinary paint brush, dip into the syrup mixture, paint on copper, then wait for it to dry. Once dry, paint a thin layer of hard ground over the top. Wait for the hard ground to dry, then place the plate of copper in warm water. The sugar mixture (with the help of the detergent) should then "lift" off the plate, exposing the copper beneath it. You can rub the hard ground covered plate in the water gently with your fingers to help the lift along. Once all the sugar mixture has lifted off the plate, take the copper plate out the water, wait for it to dry. When dry you can then either put a layer of aquatint over the top of the exposed copper (for a sugar lift aquatint) and then place it in acid. Or you can place the plate directly into the copper. Some open biting wll occur, but this will add to the effect if you so wish.

Sugar Lift Recipe
10 parts syrup (1 part sugar to 5 parts water, boiled to a syrup)
3 parts black poster paint
3 parts liquid detergent
(gum arabic is optional)