Sea creatures hold a particular fascination for me. Here I explore the delicate, translucent form of a jellyfish as it floats along with the ocean current. A touch of blue ink adds to the watery feel of this multi-ink etching.

To create this print, first I coated a zinc plate with a waxy material called rosin which is a soft ground. I then scratched/scraped my image in the rosin using a variety of tools to expose the zinc plate below. Next the plate was put in an acid bath where the acid bit into the exposed metal leaving recessed lines to hold the ink. Once the plate was removed from the bath, I then cleaned off the soft ground and was ready to apply ink. To ink the plate, I used cardboard chips to coat the entire plate and force ink into the recessed lines. I used two colors of Windsor & Newton Water Mixable Oil Colours in place of oil-based intaglio inks, as I was working in a water-based environment. Next, excess ink was removed with a fresh cardboard chip, and then the remainder of the surface ink was wiped with a stiff cheesecloth-like material called tarletan. Once the plate was wiped to my satisfaction (this can take quite awhile), I then placed the it on the press bed, covered it with dampened Rives Lightweight Cream colored paper, and ran it through the press under enough pressure to transfer the image.