Intaglio Printing

Now that I have a lovely new etching press it seemed like a good idea to finally get round to trying out some intaglio printing. I produced these prints by using a scribe to scratch into thin HIPS plastic (often used as a vacuum forming material-if you are looking for suppliers). This is a really accessible way into this sort of printing as you don't need to mess around with acid baths or expensive metal plates to achieve the fine details, you can actually just trace your images through the clear plastic straight from your sketchbook. It took a couple of attempts but I am pleased with the results and enjoyed playing around with the inks on the plate to create different levels of depth to the images.