Artist Demonstration: Sasha Satz

Welcome to the Magical World of
Printmaking
By Margaret Vickers

Entering the printmaking world is like walking through the door to Narnia and being greeted by Goldilocks! Sasha Satz was our guest demonstrator for the August meeting(2024) of the Lane Cove Art Society. Sasha, majored in printmaking at the National Art School and graduated in 2018. She now is employed at Gallery Lane Cove.

The initial half of Sasha’s presentation explained some printmaking techniques and terms. Actually doing a “live” demonstration of making a print from a copper plate was the focus of the latter part of her talk.

Sasha’s art practice is not solely confined to printmaking. Drawing has a place too. She likes to work in small scale to entice the viewer to “ stop and engage with her artwork.” Drawing also requires fewer art materials and also allows colour to be easily incorporated into her creative artworks. It is also a less expensive road to follow in comparison to the outlay required for doing printmaking – a very understandable statement coming from a young artist. She also enjoys the creative process of making her own pastels and experimenting with grounds for her plates, playing around with degrees of grit.

However, for this talk printmaking was the focus. Sasha held up etchings done from a copper plate. There are numerous terms to define when talking about printmaking. Basically there is relief printmaking and intaglio printmaking, not to mention planographic printmaking. Sasha selected an intaglio technique, namely etching. Intaglio means ink is pressed into the carved out lines on the etching plate. Relief printmaking is different as the ink is rolled onto the top surface of the matrix and a print is taken from this surface.

Sasha is drawn to copper plate etching rather than zinc because it is softer to work and carve into and produces a crisp line. She also likes the “plate tone” she can produce from a copper plate.(Plate tone refers to the residue of ink left on the plate after wiping has been done. The printmaker can decide what degree of plate tone will enhance the print).

Sasha held up a line etching of an owl taken from a copper plate. This outcome was achieved by painting a ground on the surface of the plate once it has been cleaned. The ground can be hard or soft depending on what effect you are after. A hard ground was used on this etching and the drawing was done using a scribe which cut through the hard ground. This unprotected line was then bitten in the mordant producing the line etching of the owl. A second image of the same etching was displayed but this time an aquatint had been added to the background creating a velvety black area.

Aquatinting allows tonal qualities to be added to an etching plate. It is a process whereby fine dust particles known as rosin fall onto the plate in the aquatint box. They are then heated so that they adhere to the plate and provide tiny spots of resist. The unprotected areas around the melted rosin are “bitten” in the mordant and produce tonal qualities depending on how long the plate is in the solution. The longer the plate is bitten in the mordant the darker the tone. Usually ferric chloride is used to etch a copper plate. The finer the rosin particles the darker the tone.

Many materials are required to do printmaking but a simpler technique is printing from a Perspex matrix, which is like a hard plastic. If you are teaching printmaking to a large group this printmaking technique is user friendly because not as many materials are needed yet many printmaking principles can be communicated. Using a scribe, which is a pointed needle on a wooden handle, you carve your image straight into the surface. Push ink into the grooves created using a piece of box board and the ink is taken up by the burr created. Sasha advised to keep your scribe sharp by running it along some sandpaper at regular intervals.

The surface is wiped to get rid of the excess ink. Ink is retained by the burr. Perspex prints do not get the clarity of line that comes off a copper plate. Sasha passed around some of these prints to show the different outcomes from copper plate etching and Perspex etching. A small book of prints was also shown on the theme of “Vulnerability.” The book itself seemed vulnerable purely because of its tiny scale.

The latter part of the demonstration meant the printmaking press that Sasha had brought to the meeting was centrestage. Sasha set the press in readiness for pulling a print from her copper plate. Here is where one senses the presence of Goldilocks! The pressure of the press has to be spot on. Too strong and the press blankets can be damaged and if it is too weak a very faint print will result. The consistency of the ink has to have the correct degree of malleability so that the ink can be easily “pushed into” (remember the word “intaglio”) the carved out depressions on the plate. Sasha used a mix of Charbonnel ink and graphic chemical.

The wiping of the plate to get rid of the excess ink has to be perfect. If too much ink is removed the print is faded. Tarlatan is a stiff material that is used to wipe the plate. It is scrunched into a ball shape and in the gentle hands of Sasha the copper plate was wiped of the excess ink. With every wipe the etch became more apparent but it still needed a final wipe with old telephone book paper. It gets rid of the blurry inky areas creating a more defined image. Once Sasha was happy with the wiping process she placed the plate on the press bed.

Normally a registration sheet is used if an edition is being printed but for this demonstration Sasha noted its absence. A piece of Hahnemuhle paper was used and it was carefully laid over the inked up copper plate waiting on the press bed. Once it was positioned the press blankets were laid over the paper and the print was pulled through the press. Sasha checked the corner of the print to see if enough pressure had been used. She gently replaced her paper back on the print and took it back through the press in the hope of getting a darker outcome which she achieved. There may have been an audible sigh of relief at this point because in printmaking so many issues can arise to cause a print to fail….

Thank you Sasha for taking us into the magical world of printmaking and demonstrating the printing process so thoroughly.