Zinc Plate Etching
Zinc plate etching is one of the most popular and widely used media from all intaglio techniques. Intaglio is the family of printing techniques in which the image is incised into a metal surface and the sunken area holds the ink.
Since the print was to be turned into a zine by folding, I decided to show the continuity of the zine through the journey of an animated figure walking through all the pages of the entire stretch of the paper.
Preparing the Zinc plate
The Zinc plate was cleaned with alcohol before applying a layer of varnish to its top surface.
The image to be engraved was drawn mirrored onto the plate and etched using an etching tool.
After etching, the plate was submerged in an acid bath for about 10 minutes.
Followed by a water bath, the resin was removed by gently wiping it with tissue paper to reveal the print-ready plate.
Inking
Black Block printing ink is applied to the etched areas and the excess ink on the non-printing area is scrubbed off with gauze.
The ink remains in the sunken areas. An inked plate can only be used for printing once. The plate has to be inked again for a second print.
Printing
The inked plate was placed under a moist paper and a thick felt mat, then put through a manual cylindrical press where the image got transferred.
The Final Print
The image describes a cartoon walking through the continuous strip of paper when folded into a zine.
