First test of the new etching tank

I added some lines to the same plate I used the test the press, and bit it in the new tank. It worked fine. The next step is break out a fresh plate and try one for real.

Etching tank

 Having gotten a larger etching press, I needed a larger etching tank. As far as I could tell, the official vertical etching tanks on offer were larger than I needed, expensive, and requiring a lot more ferric chloride to fill them up. My friend Chris Wirth tracked down this cereal container which is the right size, but I wanted to make a different top with a slot to hang the plate through. 

After making a couple of kludgy prototypes based on replicating the oval shape of the top, 

I ended up making a box to hold the tank with a slotted top and a little bridge to stick the end of the tape suspending the plate to. Next step is to try actually biting a plate - should accommodate plates up to about 9" x 12".

Path into the woods

The last time I visited this place it was July and hot as Hades. Today was warmish for November but the sun was already to set behind the bare trees at 2:30 PM. I just had a short time to catch the light in the foreground, the shadow in the woods, and the beckoning light farther down the path.

Abandoned Getty station

 Today I am thankful that they didn't tear down this skeevy old abandoned Getty station before I had a chance to paint it again. I did a little watercolor sketch back in April and always wanted come back and do a larger oil painting. This what I was able to do in about two hours - the drawing and overall block in.

Happy birthday Benoit B Mandelbrot

 Today is the birthday of Benoit B Mandelbrot, the pioneering French mathematician who discovered fractals and changed forever the way we think about clouds, coastlines, and screen savers. This vision of self-similar cereal came to me in a dream, from which I awoke LMAO (my hypnopompic brain is easily amused).

Triptych

Three small plates, of which the bottom two were originally one till I cut it in half, printed together on the new etching press.

They make an enigmatic statement , no?

New etching press, first print!

Just got my new etching press, and pulled a test print using a plate I had started at a workshop last spring. The drawing itself is no great shakes, but the print quality far exceeded my expectations given the number of variables (pressure, paper wetness, ink consistency, etc) any one of which can scuttle the whole operation.

The press is an RLV A3 size (12" x 17") bed, from South Africa. I've been gradually working up to this investment for some time, starting with drypoints on plexiglass printed by rubbing with a spoon or baren and then tiny etchings printed with an Open Press Project press. I need to get or make a few more things to actually etch larger pieces but then I should be turning out prints up to 8" or 9" wide.