B.I.G. : Etching Ground

Andrew Baldwin of Trefeglwys Print Studios, Powys has developed this innovative and versatile non-toxic etching ground. The main constituent of BIG is ink, and it allows the artist printmaker to experiment with many different effects on their etching plate. Techniques ranging from soft and hard ground, photo etching, marbling, relief etching, sandpaper aquatints and coffee lift are but a few which can be explored. BIG has been used at the School of Art University of Aberystwyth since 2002 and has been adopted in many other private and educational print workshops around the world.

Which colour ground to choose? In fact both grounds will work in the same way and will do all the processes from coffee lift to icing sugar aquatint. The colours are a matter of personal preference; black looks similar to a traditional ground, you can see impressed or inscribed marks in it clearly, whereas red allows you to see preliminary drawing made on top of the ground.

To remove use an alkaline citrus cleaner such as Mystrol or polish off with Brasso.