Fun with Etching

Chulalongkorn University's Jamjuree Gallery offers a fun course in printmaking this Saturday - be there

Inspiration hits and you're suddenly the new Michelangelo decorating the dome of St Peter's Basilica. But how do you share your masterpiece, when you only have the one original?

That's where a knowledge of etching comes to the rescue, and you can learn about it from  Chulalongkorn University's Jamjuree Art Gallery, which recently held a "Fun with Etching" workshop.

"Etching allows us to reproduce our works without comprising the originals," says instructor Asst Prof Surachai Ek-phalakorn. "This technique was adopted for newspaper and textbook printing, so it was really the first step towards globalisation."

Creating the image

Workshop participants practised filing the sharp edge of copper plate then waxing one side of the plate with a coat of varnish.  Once the varnish is hard, the etcher uses an etching needle to draw the design, then soaks the plate in ferric chloride acid until it "bites". The plate is then cleaned and ink applied to the image, with any surplus carefully wiped. The final process is to place a damp piece of paper over the plate and run it through a printing press, thus transferring the image.

"It's really exciting," says Kriddichard Phisetsathon, 20, "And seeing the image on the paper was thrilling!"