Here is my foray into acid etching a while back. I had this vision of doing faces. It all started with this picture of my son when he was a baby. I had tinkered with the color and contrast to get this black and white image. I used to use this B&W image as my avatar. It was originally a project for my scrapbooking side.
As a very young girl I remember hearing the Beatles “Michelle” on the radio and knew for sure they were singing to me. I was a bit of a Beatles freak in my teens. I felt that I was born at the wrong time. How could I have missed those concerts in 1964? I read everything I could about them. I purchased a book of the complete history of the Beatles that included a poster. That poster had been on the wall of my bedroom since the late ’70-’s. On their last trip out here I convinced my dad to do downstairs to my old bedroom and bring me that poster. Could it be almost 30 years later?? Shocking to get old….I digress…..
So I scanned that poster and shrunk it and tinkered with the contrast. I really felt there must be a way to do what I wanted. I could see the piece of jewelry in my head. I got the B&W image were I wanted it, sometimes editing pixel by pixel. All I had to do was figure out a way to get the detail I needed as resist onto the metal. I have read of several ways to do it and even tried a few only to have miserable results. It was very disheartening. I tried for weeks. I finally went to the ironing the toner onto the metal method and that didn’t work either. The image didn’t come off the paper. I tried again. It seemed to work ok but there was some white residue I could not scrub off with out scrubbing off the detail…out of frustration I just had to plunge it in the acid and see what I would get. I am really shocked at the results. It is totally cool! Here is that piece. I also did a test patch of a scrolly pattern. the whole piece of copper is 4-1/4″ x 2″. It just makes me want to sing, “Love Love me do…you know I love you…” ……
Michelle Fundametals
