Dressing Up in the Ituri Forest #7 out of 15, 11x15in Original Soft Ground Etching
Dressing Up in the Ituri Forest #7 out of 15, 11x15in Original Soft Ground Etching
Title: Dressing Up in the Ituri Forest #7 out of 15
About the Work:
Each image explores the tension of being both inside and outside of society in the Congo where I grew up.
My childhood dress was fluffy and fun expressing the simplicity and innocence of childhood, in contrast with the danger, fear and uncertainty that marked my survival as a little girl during an escape from an uprising in the Congo.
This is an original soft ground etching, from a varied edition of fifteen, this piece is #7 out of 15, on 100% Somerset rag printmaking paper. It is 15x22in with the image bleeding off all four edges.
About the Soft Ground Etching Technique:
The subtle details of fabric are transferred to a metal plate using a tacky soft ground,. The metal plate is then heat set and exposed to an etching mordant of copper sulphate and salt that etches the image into the metal. The plate is hand-wiped with etching ink, the colour is applied using a stencil and the image is transferred to paper using a hand-operated etching press.
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Karen Cornelius holds the Copyright on all her artwork. No image may be reproduced for any reason without the consent of the artist.
How it was Made:
The etching is an original printmaking process using acid or a mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design.
For this work, I used a soft ground made from asphaltum, beeswax and rosin which makes a ground that remains soft, pliable and sensitive to pressure allowing the textured material of a child’s dress to be pressed into the surface. Once the dress was pressed into the soft ground, the ground must be hardened on the metal plate. The plate is then etched. I used a less toxic mordant of copper sulphate and salt to etch the aluminum plates for this series.
Once the resist is removed, the plate is inked and wiped by hand pushing ink into every line and texture, then wiping the excess off the surface. The inked image is transferred onto paper by running the plate topped with a piece of rag paper between a steel roller and a steel bed of a hand-driven etching press.
The layers of colour were added by integrating Japanese paper using the chine colle method.
