Printmaking Class: Beginning Etching

Memory In Etching: Record memory through objects in this four-week course on etching. Students will create etching prints that focus on objects of your memory. Etching, also known as intaglio, is a centuries-old method used to make hundreds of identical prints from a single plate. Using soft ground etching on copper plates, we will create prints of intricate detail, fine lines, and atmospheric color.

We will use the two large presses to print our etching plates. Students will develop skills of preparing paper and creating templates for identical prints, which will serve students in all methods of printmaking beyond this course. We will look at historical and contemporary artists’ work in etching.

A note about accessibility at Waterfall: Our print studio is located on the third floor, with staircase access only at this time. We are proud to be a green print studio, free of toxic chemicals. As with all printmaking classes at Waterfall Arts, drawing is a helpful but not necessary skill: we share methods for tracing and transferring images to plates. All students, regardless of prior experience, welcome! We are happy to tailor instruction to include additional techniques for students wanting to advance their existing skills.

About the instructor: Chip Barchilon is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in the unceded territory of the Wabanaki Confederacy. Barchilon’s work responds to past and present stories of place and pushes against the structures of power embedded within these histories. Drawing from fairy tales, rhizomatic theory and deep ecology, their practice in bioplastic sculpture and works on paper creates atmospheres of eerie beauty that delight in ambiguity and multiplicity.