Copper engraving

Copper Engraving

Copper Engraving

In the sixties, I started learning copper engraving. There are different techniques. The simplest one is called "etching." I think it originally involved acid. It is engraved in relief. If you were to engrave directly, you would use a burin. But this is a very delicate direct engraving technique. Etching is practically the easiest to perform. We use copper plates cut to size, which we buy in a specialized store. The surfaces are smooth and shiny. We apply a varnish called "bitumen of Judea" which we also buy in an artist supply store. It will give a brown color to the plate. We can then reveal the copper with a "dry point," the equivalent of the tip of a nail. Depending on the fineness of the work the engraver wants to achieve, he can use dry points already mounted on wooden handles of different fineness.

Dry Point

As with any engraving (lithography, etc.), you have to create your work upside down, in mirror image. As with lithography, you can make a tracing of a drawing to be transformed into an engraving, using a greasy pencil. This will allow you to deposit a pencil mark on the copper varnish, which can serve as a guide. When the dry point runs over the varnish, the copper is revealed in a beautiful bright yellow. Therefore, we engrave "light on dark."

When this engraving work is completed, we proceed to the etching. Iron chloride attacks the copper in a much gentler and more flexible way. An attack with sulfuric acid is too brutal and can detach fragments of varnish. However, there is no limit to the fineness when using iron chloride. This attack is relatively quick: a few minutes. The time of the iron chloride attack determines the "darkness" of the line. You can play with this time and, in certain areas of the copper, create surprising effects. For example, you can create reflections or rays of light on a background of hatching. To do this, you will perform a very weak attack (of short duration). Then, after drying, you will cover the areas where this attack must be stopped. Once the varnish has dried, you will immerse the copper again in the iron chloride for a more pronounced attack.

We rinse the copper with water and dissolve the varnish with a solvent. The engraved copper appears. Getting prints using a press requires some skill. As with lithography, each pass of engraving will carry away all the ink deposited on the copper. We ink the plate with the palm of our hand. Among professional engravers, this ink eventually tattoos their hands. We thus fill the grooves created during the iron chloride attack. We use a kind of gas to remove the ink covering the free surface of the film. The paper is also "vat paper," made from rags. The sheet of paper is generally larger than the copper, which will leave its impression in relief after passing through.

A copper engraving press is composed of two rollers of about twelve centimeters in diameter and fifty centimeters in length.

Copper Engraving Press

As with lithography, the number of copies that can be produced with a copper plate is limited: fifty, at most seventy. After that, the engraving wears out, and the grooves close.

My First Copper Engraving

When you turn around, in this old courtyard of a Paris neighborhood, you see this:

Notre-Dame de Paris, view of the apse

An amusing detail: in these sixties, between two climbs on the cliffs of the Belgian Ardennes with our friend Jean Lecomte, my companions and I had ants in our legs. With my friend Jean-Louis Philoche, we climbed a number of public buildings at night. For example, we climbed up to the very tip of the spire of Notre-Dame. When we reached the top, we fixed a "little pair of pants" (the maximum size we could find in the store, a nice pink) on the top. The next day, we called the archbishopric and asked if it was normal for the housekeeper to dry her laundry that way. The climb was not difficult. We attacked in the angle of the apse and transept. There is a small overhang that is easy to climb. At the top, the visitor is in for a surprise. The spire, for example, is made of ... wood, as are the gargoyles and the large cross that adorns the apse. One should remember that the cathedral was completed by Violet-Leduc, the conservator of historical monuments. A nice job, let's admit. But, due to economy, wood was widely used. The "gilded bronze" statues that adorn the cathedral (including that of Violet Leduc, who turns to look at his work) are made of wood covered with copper. From that distance, who would notice the difference?
Let this "Disneyland" side not prevent you from appreciating the elegance of the building during your next visit to Paris. Last point: I had the final part of this climb, that is the spire, on my head, making sure on the gargoyles, after several successive acrobatic repositions. It was only when I reached the very top that I discovered that there were ... ladder rungs on one of its sides. In the small balcony at the base of the spire, be careful of multiple cables that allow the bells to be operated from inside the building. Not knowing this detail, I landed in this balcony, causing a nice chime.

**I found this pen, which dates from 1960: ** --- ---