Hi, I'm intrigued by acid etching but my painting skills aren't the best. I was wondering if it would be possible to use a rubber stamp and stop out to produce a design or does it need to be done with a brush.
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers
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Hi, I'm intrigued by acid etching but my painting skills aren't the best. I was wondering if it would be possible to use a rubber stamp and stop out to produce a design or does it need to be done with a brush.
Any help is much appreciated!
Cheers
Stamping works fine - you can actually just use stazon if you're careful. It tends to need touching up with stopout varnish, but it will get the design there very well. Bear in mind that it needs to be a reversed image though, so if there's any text involved, you'd need to make your own with an imagepac system or photopolymer plate.
The alternative is to just computer generate your image and print onto pnp paper ( i like the blue version), which you then heat fix to your metal before etching. Incredibly easy and very good results.
You do need a carbon based printer, with toner, not an ink jet and you can copy anything in black and white. Images are easily reversed by printing onto acetate as used for overheads and then turning it over. This can then be recopied onto your transfer medium.
As George says, PnP is good to use, ironed on and peeled back according to the instructions. You can also use the acetate mentioned above, which is peeled back while still hot, with the iron in contact. Both methods need some practice. Small defects can be touched up with a fine brush and stop out, but I believe Maplin sell a stop out pen.
Acid etching is another matter and best not tried at home. Dennis.
I use a travel iron as it has a nice flat base and no steam holes, and seems to hold a pretty steady temperature. I also have a little quilter's iron for tiny bits and pieces.
I saw an interesting video of someone using a heat laminator to apply pnp to both copper and brass recently, and keep meaning to try that for larger pieces.
I do occasionally acid etch at home, but only outside (which means in the summer for me) with a pretty heavy-duty mask. For general use, I just use ferric nitrate, which does the job pretty well, albeit more slowly.
Wow thanks so much George and Dennis. You've given me plenty to look into and try (once my workshop is built!), sounds like pnp is the way to go and a new printer! Maplin stop out pen could be an easy way to start out with (or is it only good for touch-ups?) with ferric nitrate.
I was looking at those the other day George, as I'd like to experiment with some etching. Do they get hot enough for the pnp paper then? I hadn't ordered one as I couldn't find any info on their maximum temperature, so I wasn't sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by mizgeorge
I am sorry if you know this already, but you have to distinguish between the temperature and the amount of heat given out. So if you only have one iron it's better to have a larger one. That said I have used our family travel iron quite successfully as does George.
The temperature to use for PnP is around 150°C. My cutting from Art Jewellery Magazine says you can verify this with a magnetic thermometer as used for wood burning stoves. You adhere this to the base of the iron before adjusting the temperature. Lesser mortals just experiment: it's when a spitty finger barely hisses. Dennis.
Mine works fine Lauren, - it's a Clover mini iron - and is useful for smaller pieces, and also those where I'm naughty and attach pnp to surfaces that aren't entirely flat. All the tips seem to work, with a setting just below medium.Quote:
Originally Posted by ShinyLauren
Also planning to attempt slightly curved surfaces. That was the iron I was looking at - I shall get one!Quote:
Originally Posted by mizgeorge
I bought some pNp and it was a disaster. It came out of the photocopier/printer with scratches all over it. Any advice on getting the knack right?
Also, anyone ever tried recovering silver from their Ferric?
I only use tiny bits at a time. I print the image I want onto plain paper, then cut a bit of pnp to fit the image plus a little bit and tape the leading edge down with sellotape so the pnp just covers the image before reprinting on manual feed. There can be the odd bit that's imperfect, so I just go over that with stopout varnish (and a very tiny paintbrush) whilst I'm doing the back and edges of the piece.
I've never bothered trying to recover the silver from ferric, though I'm sure it's possible.
Thanks for that George! I'll have a go again.
I'm on a recycling drive to recover the silver from Mr Medusa's photo chemicals and my silver working to make some jewellery for when we renew our vows this year. We thought it would be romantic :)