What is an etching?

1. A finely polished metal plate is covered with a thin film of waxy “ground.”
2. Onto this I create a design, ensuring that each time a mark is made this breaks the surface of the ground and exposes the metal below.
3. The plate is placed in a bath of ferric chloride, an acid which eats into the metal where it has been exposed during drawing.
4. The ground is removed and the plate s covered all over with printing ink. This is wiped away, leaving ink only in the grooves made by the acid.
5. The plate is covered with damp paper and passed through a printing press under incredible pressure. This forces the paper into the grooves, pulling out the ink.
6. The print is lifted off the plate, revealing the design in reverse and a “plate mark”, where the paper has been pressed around the edge of the plate. This is a good indication that the print is an original etching.

What is an "original" print?

Essentially an original print is an image conceived by the artist as a print. It did not start life as a drawing, an oil painting or a watercolour and was then copied using photographic techniques and printed by a machine. This should be called a reproduction.

Because original prints have to be inked and printed by hand, each one is unique. Each will show slight variations depending on how the ink was applied and wiped away.

Each print is offered in a limited edition. For example a print marked 2/30 means the print is the second copy to be taken from the plate and no more than thirty will ever be taken from that particular plate.