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In orthodox circumstances an artist will mix carborundum* grit with a PVA wall-paint before painting it onto the surface of the copper. An artist such as Wilma Cruise has used carborundum in the orthodox way, as in “Harrismith”. Slemon proved to the printers at DKW that there can be variations to this approach.

Slemon isolated areas on the plate using masking tape before sprinkling a variety of carborundum grits through a gauze onto the selected areas, before fixing it with either spray paint or fixative. In varying the fixing medium, he achieved a variety of tonal intensities on the resulting print.

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He also broke new territory in his use of carborundum on multiple plates, printed simultaneously.

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xxxxxxxxxxxxx(Black area fixed with spraypaint)xxxxxxxxx (White area fixed with fixative)

The first two plates were both created with carborundum. The third plate was etched using a hard ground line. On the hard ground plate he removed the ground in a variety of ways. To begin with, masking tape was placed onto the ground gently, and drawn onto. In this way the ground was lifted in an unconventional fashion. Secondly, Slemon removed the ground in the traditional way, with an etching needle. Once the plate was etched, there were two visibly different marks.

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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx(Proof of resultant three plate technique)

Keywords: News, print techniques, Print Workshop, Printmaking, prints