etching mini-trial...

As promised, here are my findings for my "What Resists Etching Solution Best Trials." The first test (and the only one I remembered to take pictures of, by the by) compared a Marvy Uchida paint pen in opaque white and super sticky, sort of rubbery, screen printing tape.



First of all, both did a fine job resisting the etching solution.



However, both had their drawbacks in the prep stages. The paint pen takes FOREVER to dry (notice smudges on my otherwise pristine polka dot pattern? sigh...). My solution for this is to make your plate and set it aside over night to dry. I know, I know, next to impossible to do...we can use it as an exercise in patience...ha HA. The tape leaves invisible (to the naked eye) areas of adhesive on the surface after you have cut away your design with an exacto blade. This makes for serendipitous eyeballs on critters and blobs on other things. My solution for this little problem is to carefully go over all the exposed metal with a bit of GOO GONE on a cotton swab and then with a bit of glass cleaner.

I discovered, quite by accident, that plain old black sharpie marker will act as a resist leaving a shallow cut on the surface. My next trial will be using a comination of paint pen and sharpie marker to see what sort of shading and detail can be achieved. Should be interesting. And hopefully, I will remember to take pictures of the before and after on that one!