door knobs for Diane .....

I am posting on these door knobs for Diane whose latest post has a photo of a door knob which I take to be on the beautiful house she and her husband are renovating in France. 

I had planned, back in 2002, to do a series of etchings on door knobs, having photographed hundreds whist travelling with my daughter in Europe.  I had drawings for 13 of them - only these three were ever done!!  I moved on to other things, and these three etchings still remain as artist's proofs.  One day I may print a few of them.  In the meantime, they hang on my studio wall, reminding me that I used to be far less abstract in my etchings than I am now.  

This etching above is a two plate etching - the patterned background being the first plate printed, then the second plate has all the detail of the knocker.  The plate below is a three plate etching and is of a rather beaten up old metal door.  I have used plenty of open bite in the main plate, and then the knob and the key are done on separate etching plates.  Really, this etching needs more work before I am happy with it.

The etching of the Lion door knob is done on a single plate, mostly with aquatint and then subsequently a few line markings done to tighten up the image just a little.  The colour is blended on the plate carefully, before the printing is done.  Often you need to warm the copper plate repeatedly to be able to blend the inks successfully.

as you can see - this was not photographed with the etching held very flat!

Some of the etching details can be seen in the photographs below.  The lion knocker is my favourite and I have done a number of prints from it - finding that very often the second pull, when all the richness of the first layer of ink has gone, is often quite successful.  I find this rarely happens with an etching plate.  I know I have them somewhere in the studio ... can't lay my hands on them though.