TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
My personal technique using Chine Collé with traditional and innovative etching is the following:
With continuous alterations to a copper plate I print a sequence
of black, yellow, red and blue, passing the same plate through the press for
each design and color change.
To start with; the first tones to the plate are given with line etching,
drypoint, aquatint, softground, photocopy transfer or roulette. I pull my first
color. With these first impressions, I work back into the plate with a scraper,
burnisher and emery paper to enhance the lights and accent the motif. I then go
on to the second, third and fourth colors. Finally, the print is completed from
the back with a relief process of woodcut or linocut to intensify shapes and/or
colors.
I print on the paper which best suits my work; this is a thin Japanese paper
known as Toyama Kozo (Japanese Mulberry). As in the French use of Chine Collé I
apply glue to the back of the Kozo print and pass it through the press, with a
heavier rag paper (BFK Reves or Somerset, etc.) beneath. What the viewer sees;
is my four color intaglio print saturated with subtle tones that come through
the back of a Toyama Kozo paper which is set deep into a rag paper.