Making Bookplates with Electrolytic Etching
Part I: ProloguePart II: Preparing the Plate
Chemicals and Electricity, What Fun! One Christmas, I made custom bookplates for myself and a few friends by etching zinc plates. They came out great, and the process, while taking much longer than I would have liked, is a great technique for customizing copper, brass, or zinc metalwork. Here’s the artwork I did for the whole set:
You Will Need:
- 12ga. zinc plates, available from any well-stocked art supply store. You can also use copper or brass. I’ve read that steel will also etch with this setup, but also that it won’t, so if you have a definitive answer on that let me know.
- Semi-gloss inkjet photo paper, the cheaper the better so that the paper will be thin. I used HP Everyday Semi-Gloss Photo Paper.
- A clothes iron.
- A plastic water pitcher
- A steel oven rack or barbecue grill
- A few 100W bulbs and sockets
- Pure copper sulfate, which is sold under the trade name RootKill or as Bordeaux mixture. You can find it in the gardening section at Home Despot.
The process of getting all of these from Illustrator into Zinc is somewhat involved, and here I should probably say we will be working with toxic chemicals and electricity, together, and this process releases hydrogen gas, which is highly flammable. It’s not for the faint of heart. But it doesn’t require any special equipment, and if you work safely you should be okay.
Continue Reading for the Instructions!
Go to Section:
