[speaker001:] Sir, is Miss not in?
[Andrew:] No. Could you take your coats off please and come into the blue room.
[speaker001:] Well who's taking Miss 's class?
[Andrew:] question?
[speaker001:] What?
[Andrew:] the answer. Can you come through please. Right folks... Donald is here making typical of English in use... from schools at the moment. So if you would er ignore the presence of the microphone that would be helpful.... I intend to give you a demonstration today based on work that... Kevin has done. He's his plate with hard wax as many of you now have done. He has... varnished the back with, can you remember what sort of special old varnish it was?
[Kevin:] Straw hat.
[Andrew:] Correct. Well done. Straw hat varnish.... Now it's safe from acid attack on the back and on the front except for where he has lightly drawn through the thin wax coating using the etching. Drawn this little character and what I intend to do is put this into acid... and etch it. The actual etching process where the acid bites through the liner into the metal and makes a rule. When that's happened I'll take it out of the acid... clean it and show you how to take a print from the plate. I would like you all to try to... remember... the stages of the process because you're going to have to do, as I said to you last lesson, a small write up on this in order to get your unit of accreditation... for this work. That is to say your special certificates. Right erm... would you normally be room? Would you normally be in this room?... Is it likely that there are other pupils who may turn up in that room in a few minutes?... Or do you think that you may be the only ones?... Are they all on the English trip? Okay. In that case could you just take your coats off and put them somewhere... erm out of the way. Please. Now we're gonna be using acid... very very dilute acid. Nevertheless we have to take proper precautions. So, if you would be so kind as to get into a position where you can see what I'm doing without being too close... it means that if we do splash any acid by accident er the likelihood of it causing any problems to anyone are minimal.... Have you come to... supervise Miss 's class?... As it happens it would seem that most of those children are out on an English trip.
[speaker004:] Oh.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[Andrew:] Perhaps you would like to go and do your own thing. Perhaps you'd like to stick around and watch this happening because I remember you subbing once for an etching lesson.
[speaker004:] Oh it's an etching lesson is it?
[Andrew:] Yes can you remember?
[speaker004:] Yes
[Andrew:] Yesterday wasn't it? And you thought well I'd better not
[speaker004:] I'm not having them running around.
[Andrew:] That's right. I remember you saying. So perhaps you'd like to... keep them right
[speaker004:] Have a.
[Andrew:] and make sure I do it right. But on the other hand if you
[speaker004:] [LAUGHTER] I don't know how to do it [].
[Andrew:] [LAUGHTER] Oh well I meant from the point of view of.
[speaker004:] Safe safety point of view.
[Andrew:] Safety
[speaker004:] Oh I'll stay for this.
[Andrew:] Is that alright?
[speaker004:] Mm.
[Andrew:] Smashing. Thank you very much. This by the way is er Donald who is making sound recordings of in the school today.. So swearing. Er... right my friends. As I say, I would like you to be in... fairly close proximity to where I am so that you can see what I'm doing and hear what I'm saying. Er and I don't want you to be too close. I will actually be working to start with in this area here. So perhaps you could arrange yourselves in a semi-circle just round here.... Right, my friends... we've very strange and wonderful chemicals in this erm... [cough] I do beg your pardon... when we are printing.... The one which you will have come across when we were doing lino printing was turps. We had to use turps didn't we, to dissolve the printing inks? Can you remember that, when you did lino printing?
[speaker001:] Mm
[Andrew:] But when we're doing screen printing we use very much stronger solvents... which can have a nasty effect on your skin. You notice I have slight eczema on the palms of my hands. Some of us have even worse eczema, yeah? So it's really important that we... don't irritate our skin. But frankly... it's not likely to irritate your skin anyway because er... you aren't industrial users of this... you would only ever touch these chemicals for a very short time so the... any possible side effects they might er have on you will be... greatly diminished by the fact that you didn't use them very much. If you're using them in industry, day in day out all day long, then that is the real importance of wearing protective gear. But I'm just going to demonstrate to you just... what happens. This lovely supple rubber here... is exactly the same supple rubber here at one time but now it's gone all hard and denatured because of the chemicals. So if y... if the chemicals will do that over a long period of time... to rubber, think what it would do to your skin. Does that make sense?
[speaker001:] Mm.
[Andrew:] These lumps have become so erm hardened by these chemicals that I can't er pick up... the... thin zinc plate from the... tub.... I'm afraid that Mrs has gone off with, ah Mrs... I'll be very grateful if you could bring me in a bowl. You know the one you just took out?
[speaker001:] You want it back? [LAUGHTER]
[Andrew:] I wonder if I could have it back please? A a bowl. A a bowl, it doesn't matter which one. Just a plastic bowl please, washing up bowl.
[speaker001:] Do you want anything in it? Or just water?
[Andrew:] Er... bring it empty and I'll. Thank you very much.... I'm gonna have a... a bowl of water handy just in case.... So having put on these er temporary protective gloves. These are ones I bought long time ago.... Erm they're... as you can see, still a bit awkward but much easier to use than these. What do you think the other piece of protective gear I might need would be?
[speaker001:] Goggles.
[Andrew:] Goggles. Good. And I have a pair of goggles here but there is another safety device built into this which is this window. In fact the tray of acid will go in there... so any splashing around I might do, any upward splashing is not likely to reach. You will be relieved to know I've ordered some new... rubber gloves like this and some new goggles... for next term. But you don't need to use them this term anyway so it's alright.... The acid we use is nitric acid. It's very very dilute, only fifteen percent acid... the rest is water. And I have used this particular acid already to etch zinc.... Can't hear you.
[speaker001:] Oh. I just, I'll just.
[Andrew:] I'll see you later.... Consequently this acid now contains some zinc which has eaten it away.... there'll be a residue of zinc in there. The other metal which I mentioned to you before which is the traditional method for... etching is copper, copper plate. And I am told that it is not advisable to use the same batch of acid for etching copper as has been used for etching zinc because the... deposits of two metals in the acid creates erm an unpleasant, noxious, possibly poisonous gas and I don't know what that would do. Talking about gas, even this produces gas.... Therefore you have this machine which is an extractor. It's called a... a fume cupboard I think. A s sort of cupboard. It's open at the front. It has to be because we have to get our hands in. But it's extracting the fumes going out the window. Possibly not very... ecologically sound but safer for you at all events.... This hasn't been used for some time so it's a bit so I'm just going to wipe it out so... there are no particles or foreign bodies in there.... And this bit I do before the lesson and I do this, clean it up afterwards. You don't have to do this bit.... But notice that I'm pouring slowly and gently away from me into the dish which I shall then put in here, and I'm going to put the... the plate, which I described to you before, which has been covered with... what's on the back?... Straw hat varnish. What's on the front?
[speaker001:] Hard wax.
[Andrew:] Hard wax. And scratched so the acid should bite through there. Has anybody got a chronometer on them?...
[speaker001:] What?
[Andrew:] you have haven't you?
[speaker001:] What?
[Andrew:] A watch.... Will you time er... two minutes please? From the moment this goes into the acid.... You lower it in gently and sloosh it about so that the acid covers the surface.... Right, you may troop by that and look down there, notice I wasn't wearing the goggles that was naughty of me wasn't it? I should have been... er while I go and get a turkey feather. Okay, you go and have a look at that covered up. And try and see if we've got er... forming on the lines.... yes. That's what makes er these chemicals so dangerous, you don't know what they are.... What do you think I've got this for? Sorry, I can't hear you Paul.
[speaker001:] So that er
[Andrew:] I still can't hear you.
[speaker001:] To scrape the zinc off.
[Andrew:] To scrape the zinc off? When it's? Very good, yes. That's correct. As the zinc is eaten away... air bubbl er sorry not air bubbles... gas bubbles... I don't know what gas. Any idea what gas might be being produced?
[speaker004:] No I was trying to think it's zinc. And it's in a basin of hydrogen
[Andrew:] Zinc and nitrate.
[speaker004:] and it would give off nitrate wouldn't it?
[Andrew:] Zinc nitrate?
[speaker004:] Which isn't a gas.
[Andrew:] Which isn't a gas.
[speaker004:] It's a salt.
[Andrew:] So perhaps some odd hydrogen is produced as well.
[speaker004:] Well that sometimes happens when there's
[Andrew:] Two minutes? Right.
[speaker004:] Yeah I think the two minutes is up.
[Andrew:] David's timed two minutes. Now when that acid is... fresh and hasn't been used before... two minutes is usually quite enough for it to have done the... job it's supposed to do.... This is an imprecise... operation because... since the acid has been used I don't know how many times... because the temperature, the ambient temperature in the room varies. In the winter when it's cold it works more slowly... now when it's very hot it will, should work more quickly. Er I can't say precisely... leave it in the acid for so and so time. So we always... this has always been the case for the four... five hundred years that people have been doing etching, so they go by a rule of thumb. The rule of thumb is this... when the first cluster of bubbles is fully formed, sweep them away with a bird's wing feather. So... I have duly swept them away. Which means that the acid can get back in there. That the air bubble er the gas bubble, I keep saying air bubble, that's wrong. They are gas bubbles. The gas bubbles forming along the lines were keeping the acid out of the lines. So I've swept them away so that the acid can get back in. When the second set of bubbles is formed... it's done. That's the rule of thumb. Okay? Two formations of bubbles and it's bitten deep enough.... So I suppose that was about two and a half minutes wasn't it? So I would think that we're working on a five minute schedule. Don't forget that when they first did this, people would not have had personal watches. And there may only have been one clock in the town where they worked and that would have been on the... town hall or the church. Clocks are a very... recent er... introduction as far as ordinary er working conditions are concerned. What might have they have had to measure the time as it passed?
[speaker001:] Egg timer. Sundial.
[Andrew:] Sundial, yes. But that might not have been too convenient.
[speaker001:] Egg timer.
[Andrew:] Say it was night for instance. Pardon?
[speaker001:] One of them sand things.
[Andrew:] One of them sand things. Who knows what they're called?
[speaker001:] Egg timer.
[Andrew:] An egg timer is what we use them for now. Do you know what the traditional name for them is?... Anybody know? It's called an hourglass. Have you heard that before?
[speaker001:] No. Sir. You scratched your nose and you've got acid on them gloves....
[Andrew:] Right. I did didn't I?
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[Andrew:] But I [cough] I should come out in great welts soon and start looking like an American werewolf in London. Right, my face will start falling off. Quite right. You must be careful not to unconsciously... touch anything with... even the gloves. And you should wash the gloves... as soon as you've touched the acid. I should have done that straight away. Well spotted. I will do it now. Say that again Paul, please. I'm sorry Paul, I can't understand you. Something about an extractor? Yes. Yes. Yes. It might be harmful to your lungs.... It hasn't been used yet. But it's not er as good as Well that's what it says it is on the erm... on the outside.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] Orange spot on me notes [].
[Andrew:] Mm? see what it was. Now it's green. That means it's been used with... copper.... We have a suspicion that... very little reaction has taken place because in fact very few bubbles have... risen to the surface. This could be... I don't think acid spends itself as it sits in a bottle does it?
[speaker004:] No.
[Andrew:] It stays the same configuration.
[speaker004:] Mm. It's erm if you've used that lots and lots of times it may have used up all the.
[Andrew:] It... may have exhausted mayn't it? Yeah. So... because it worked last time I used it. I'm hoping that it has worked this time. It's been in there much longer than... I'd normally leave it. So, it will either have not worked at all for some obscure reason... or it will have worked well and. So whatever has happened, I'm now going to remove it from the acid. I'm going to wash it. And then we're going to remove the wax coating. Okay? So I wonder whilst I do that... er if you would just take note of the... safety precautions here. Again... one should wear one's goggles, no? One should.... Notice where I've put the feather please. I've put it resting on the dish so that any acid from it doesn't get on to that bench there.... Drain off the acid. Please note if I leave any splashes on the bench. Did I leave any splashes on the bench?
[speaker001:] Yes.
[Andrew:] Right.
[speaker001:] Loads.
[Andrew:] As you will. I've now rinsed that in there so it's so dilute now... that when I pour it away... hardly a trace of it there.... take a cloth and I'll clean up where I've been. You should do that every time.... You'll also be provided with an apron... to protect your clothes.
[speaker001:] Ooh.
[Andrew:] Right? So that's the spec on that. These I will dispose of now. But when we have a prop proper set of gloves [cough] we ought to put the gloves [cough] and the goggles there ready for the next person to use. And make sure when you leave the place I hope that you have washed them and you've washed those. Okay, er... yes I think it may have actually etched, we may be in luck. I hope so. Would you come over to... that bench over there.... Right folks, can you all see? I don't want you too cramped. Can you move round this side a bit.... As you can see, the wax has dissolved away extremely quickly, easily... except for that lump. Do you remember that lump Kevin?
[Kevin:] Mm.
[Andrew:] And it didn't do any harm at all, that lump. You can just
[Kevin:] Has it worked then?
[Andrew:] it has worked extremely well and you can all even see can't you
[speaker001:] Mhm
[Andrew:] the fact that there are etched lines in there. Can you see it alright from where you are? It's a little sort of er science fiction monster.... Now the turps... will not I think dissolve this varnish because this varnish is alcohol based varnish.... You have to use an alcohol solvent to remove that when we need to remove it.... My next task [cough] is to find... some printing... As you can see... printing ink is delivered both in tins and if we have any left... there may be somewhere, in tubes.... Yeah.... Or... you make it yourself.... This... powder here Right. That's the commercial name for it. It's carbon.
[speaker001:] Mm?
[Andrew:] It's carbon or soot. Right. That's right. Do you know what soot is? That's right.... Now [cough] if I were to mix some of that with another substance I could make printing ink. What would the other substance be?
[speaker001:] Water. ...
[Andrew:] Erm it would have to be... if it were with water I'd have to put something else in as well otherwise the stuff wouldn't stay on the page. It would just fall off like a dust. So if I were using, making a water based printing ink, what other stuff would I have to put in as well as water?
[speaker001:] Oil?
[Andrew:] No because oil and water don't mix. Pardon? Something to thicken it but think of stickiness.
[speaker001:] Glue?
[Andrew:] Glue, yes. You'd have to put glue powder and water in to make a water based printing ink. Or erm... a base which er dried water impermeable such as EBA. [cough] But the traditional... etching printing ink is oil based. So one would use... copper plate oil. This stuff here, which... is actually dried out but it's... you can smell it, it still has the aroma of linseed oil which is what it is. Can you sniff it?
[speaker001:] It smells like oil.
[Andrew:] It smells like oil, but not like three in one oil. I think you'll find put some solvent into it... it would erm... Meing Does that mean smelly? So I'm not going to show... don't confuse that with this which is... oil... derived from... petroleum products. Linseed oil is mostly made out of the seeds of the lin linen plant. You've heard of linen haven't you?... So, there's probably going to be a little bit of ink left in here rather than opening those. Now, don't be horrified, this is the whole point of these formica benches is that we can work directly on to them. I'm gonna put some printing ink on there. It's one of the reasons why I tell you not to sit on benches... because you'll probably find the residues of ink along the edges even after the most careful clean up. I'm going to take a, a roller... these are very expensive, very classy rollers. [cough] Much higher quality than the bioprinting rollers that we may be used to using. And therefore they must be carefully looked after.... Er these little feet here are... for the roller to stand on. Please don't let me catch you rollers on benches. Don't spread this all over the bench. You only spread it in a square no bigger than the width of the roller.... The idea is to cover the complete surface of the roller in the printing ink. You see how beautifully evenly it's taken up that ink. [cough] You keep your
[speaker001:] You've missed a bit sir....
[Andrew:] You'll fi you'll find that. Don't worry. [cough]... You know roll that on to the plate which [cough] unfortunately may still have a film of turpentine on it from when I cleaned it. Strictly speaking I should have taken it from here to where to get rid of the turps?
[speaker001:] The sink.
[Andrew:] No.
[speaker001:] Oh the chalk.
[Andrew:] The chalk, good. The chalk tray. So the chalk could have absorbed up the grease. It may take, yes it is taking. Because we've been talking for a while so... had time for it to... evaporate. Good.... The next thing you use, three scrim rags. Believe it or not one of these is the dirty one... one is the not very dirty one and one is the clean one. Now they may all look dirty to you but this one has been used less and it therefore has less. This one... has erm... taken over from the medium one. This was the clean one. This one's the third one. This one's been used a lot of times. last time this was used about two years ago so it's a bit stiff. Normally you'd find that these were quite er limp, soft. Now [cough] the method of plate is to gather the
[speaker001:] Why are you wiping it if you've just put it on?
[Andrew:] Very good question. See if you can answer the question without me... yourself.
[speaker001:] Because it runs into the grooves.
[Andrew:] Exactly so. Well done.
[speaker001:] Well done.
[Andrew:] And that is something I haven't told you at all. That when you do lino printing you are printing from the surface of the lino block, the bit you've cut away doesn't print. And that's called... erm... er a special word which I've forgotten for the moment.. When you print from the cuts that you make in the plate... it's called intaglio printing. I N T A G Intag A G L I O, intaglio. Which means putting. Whilst I'm thinking of that notice the way I into the middle of the plate. Did you see that sort of... semi-circular wiping motion. I then twist the plate... forty five degrees and then keep doing that and Paul, can you see the ink taken up on the grooves there? And I'm giving it three wipes each time. I'll be working to the middle now.... Now the rag I should be using for this... is the very dirty one... [LAUGHTER] and I've started off with the clean one [] by accident. I should have started with the... rag most loaded with ink. I should have then gone on to the next cleanest one and finished off with the cleanest one. That's what I should have done but I got them in the wrong order.... However,
[speaker001:] It doesn't matter.
[Andrew:] it doesn't matter because all of them are as it happens fairly... er new and indeed as Kevin says quite correctly, dry because they haven't been used for a long time.... Now there are still traces of ink on the surface but now you can much more clearly see the etch lines because they're full of now. The next stage is the actual printing itself. Now notice that no matter that I've been careful, my hands have got printing ink on them. And your hands will doubtless get with printing ink. What professional printers do at this stage... or fine art printers would be to take their piece of paper using little paper... fingerstalls... so they didn't get their fingerprints on the paper. I am going to be less particular, but I've got to find some paper first. Excuse me for a moment.... Right, this process that I'm about to do... should take place on that table there, normally. We have to be very methodical when we do this. Inking up on that table only. Wetting the paper, Jamie... Karen... erm on that table. Erm so I'll just move my briefcase. And before you start printing you should dampen some paper. I'm going to do a wee demonstration on how to do it now. You dip it in with the leading edge... let the water pour over it, then drain it off. Put it down, put your next piece in
[speaker001:] Is that is that??
[Andrew:] Correct.
[speaker001:] Ah!
[Andrew:] It should be much better quality thick cartridge paper, preferably handmade but that costs I think I've said to you before about... ten quid a sheet. Notice how this is beautifully covered with my fingerprints now which it wouldn't be if I was handling it properly.
[speaker001:] How big are the sheets that you get for ten quid?
[Andrew:] They are... about what you would call A... one. They're that size.
[speaker001:] Ooh. Aye but can you use it over and over again or not?... No
[Andrew:] Erm you can divide that sheet up into [cough] well using a small p
[speaker001:] Can you not use the same bit... twice?
[Andrew:] You can't use the same bit more than once, no.
[speaker001:] Waste of money eh? No it's not. What for? One thing. So?
[Andrew:] [cough] Right the next stage. You take a piece of perfectly clean white tissue paper... and you place it on the... of the etching plate. As close to the rollers as possible, just there. You place the... slightly warm etching plate, so if you pop it on there for about half a second... to get the printing ink nicely mobile... and you put it printing ink face up.... You take your moistened paper... it shouldn't be dripping wet like this, it should have had time to dry out a bit. And you place it carefully... on the printing plate... so there's lots of spare paper round it because the essence of a good etching is that it has breathing space all the way round. You don't... crop an etching to it's edges. You now place the
[speaker001:] Sir.
[Andrew:] What? In there?
[speaker001:] Aye.
[Andrew:] Don't worry about it. I'll explain why in a minute.
[speaker001:] But it's straight not...
[Andrew:] found to my cost in the past. So you put it under both like this. Thanks for... mentioning that. You'll see that the pressure... is... must be quite enormous and produced a raised section there.... Erm you peel off the... tissue paper and you have your first print. And of course it's the
[speaker001:] Ooh
[Andrew:] the wrong way round isn't it? All printing is. So you must remember if you ever put any lettering on when you're printing that you must write it backwards.. Right so that, it's a bit grey isn't it? If you wanted it to be a perfectly white background then you would also use bits of white tissue paper for a final polish on the surface. And if you watch this technique, these
[speaker001:] Sir
[Andrew:] Why do you think you put tissue paper on the... on the erm base of this?
[speaker001:] Soak up the linseed. So the varnish so the varnish doesn't get scratched?
[Andrew:] So the varnish doesn't get scratched. Good point. Anything else?
[speaker001:] In case any ink runs off the side?
[Andrew:] Mhm. Good one. To protect it. to protect the... steel on the. Use the, that part of your hand to polish... the surface in a circular motion, like that. And as you can see, even after three print I've managed to lift off quite a lot of scum from the surface. Consequently that would print... pretty clean. We've cleaned that. So, Paul was worried that I hadn't put it in straight weren't you Paul? Didn't you mention it? You said
[speaker001:] Oh aye.
[Andrew:] I hadn't put it in straight. Yeah. Well it's perfectly true. It's very hard to to gauge when it's in straight. If you leave plenty of... selvage round the edge, later on you can crop that slightly so that it is a perfect ninety degree. That's basically it. And that's the way you print whether you're doing hard wax, soft wax or aquatint
[speaker001:] ?
[Andrew:] Very good. I'm glad you mentioned that. You should take at least six... prints of every impression. We haven't got time today I don't think Kevin? Can you check the watch again?
[Kevin:] Ten past.
[Andrew:] Ten past, and we finish at?
[speaker001:] Twenty five past.
[Andrew:] Twenty five past, right. I will... I I will say to Kevin yeah? Take a print, see if you can do it. But, remember... these are wet so you have to leave them out, flat to dry. And then of course we sign them up later. And I'll have to teach you precisely how to sign them up. You must also learn how to clean up after yourselves. Mrs clean er... tables for you when we've been doing... now you have to do it yourselves. So I will give you a bit of instruction on how to do that now. You will take one of these blocks... you will wet it for a certain time... and you lay it on there. Get the roller and roll it on there so it'll dissolve off the ink. Yes?
[speaker001:] Yes.
[Andrew:] Then you would erm do it again with a clean one so that this ended up looking as clean as that. You have to pay attention to that part and that part too. Then you would... take the same rag and wipe that off... and then the piece of cleaner cloth, bit more turps, clean the desk. And you put all the equipment you have used safely back in the correct tins and on the correct shelf.
[speaker001:] Sir?
[Andrew:] Wear those. It's not very nice to wear them because you get that is the end product. Thank you for your attention. If you'd like to go into the next room, please. display I have to put out. No. You need one sheet... you put that on there. ink your plate up and put it face up You don't need that one. Well,. But ink it up using the rags....