I made this bookmark as a class project in a workshop I took at the Mendocino Art Center. I've taken a few workshops at MAC and enjoyed them all. What's not to love about Mendocino?
Nancy Gardner, the Jewelry Program Coordinator pours a lot of energy into making the program a vibrant part of MAC. Nancy is also a Mendocino jeweler who makes beautiful work that reminds me of some of my favorite aspects of Arts & Crafts-era metalwork. |
My introductory etching class was taught by Mona Clee, an accomplished Bay Area jewelry artist, author, and instructor.
Mona teaches and shows her work in a variety of places around the Bay Area. The project I did is only notionally a bookmark. It's actually just a test piece to learn the methods described below. Still, I had to call it something... |
In this workshop, Mona focused on using Press-n-Peel Blue by Techniks (more frequently just called "PnP Blue") as a resist and ferric chloride as an etchant.
Warning: visiting the Techniks site at the link above may make your eyes bleed. Yes, in 2015 there are still many examples of terrible site design out there. Their etch resist is great, but the web site is...well...not so great. Obligatory disclaimer: All etchants are dangerous chemicals. If you don't know how to work with dangerous materials safely, don't work with them at all. |
There a many places on the internet where you can find detailed instructions on the use of PnP Blue and ferric chloride. Next time I do some etching, maybe I'll take a few pix and post them here.
In the meantime, here's a link to a tutorial based on Mona's workshop. Recognize the picture at left? The method Mona taught us works great for copper, brass, or nickel silver jewelry. But if you want to make etched sterling or fine silver, you'll need to use ferric nitrate or electro-etching. Ferric chloride won't etch sterling silver or fine silver. Ferric nitrate etching is essentially the same as ferric chloride etching, except ferric nitrate is harder to find and more expensive that ferric chloride. Hence my interest in electro-etching. I'll put up an electro-etching project page some day. Repeat of obligatory disclaimer: All etchants are dangerous chemicals. If you don't know how to work with dangerous materials safely, don't work with them at all. |
The design for this piece came from a Dover book of Celtic designs. Time to go drag them all off the shelf and try to find which one this came from. But that's a task for another day...