New roll on soft ground for draw through soft ground techniques
With the traditional non-toxic roll on soft ground where we used Graph Chemical Crimson Red and a binder many printmakers who are doing draw through (paper) soft grounds often had the problem that this etching ground dries to fast. My good friend and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Granada, Juan Carlos Ramon Guadix, has developed a completely non-toxic soft ground for this technique that never dries.
You can easily mix it yourself:
150 g bee wax
75 g resin colofonium (used for traditional aquatint)
500 g black lithographic ink
150 g lard
Apply it in a thin covering layer with a roller on a hotplate. It stays soft and can be worked in immediate and up to 1 week. Etch in 20 Beaumé Ferric Chloride and strip the etching ground with vegetable salad oil and degrease the plate with soya.
Degreasing the plates
Forget everything about chalk powder, CPS, detergents etc – simply use 5 drops of soya sauce (the cheapest from the supermarket) – degrease the plate with soya and a sponge, rinse the plate under running water and dry it – you will be surprised.
