First you must prepare a smooth piece of paper with 1 part water, 1 part school washable white glue. Use a foam brush and place your paper on a piece or glass or Plexiglas and paint on 1 coat and let it air dry or use a hair dryer.
After the paper is dry roll the paper up with the new blue etching ground. Take the paper and place it on the bed of the press. Take your texture and place it on the inked paper. Place a piece of polyethylene film over the texture so ink doesn’t get on the felts. Take 2 pieces of mat board and place on the polyethylene. Place your felts on the press. Run through the press with a medium to high pressure.
Remove felts, cardboard and plastic. Pull the texture from the paper. Take your clean, deoxidized plate and place the texture paper onto of the plate and run through the press with medium- high pressure. The texture will be off set onto your clean plate.
The glue from the paper mixes with the ground, becomes tacky and pulls every detail from the surface. A chemical reaction takes place. Take and heat the plate for 5 minutes at 350 degrees For 177 degrees C. If some of the pressed paper sticks to the plate it will be removed form the plate after baking by soaking and rubbing in warm water. Prior to etching deoxidize your plate again and etch. The procedure for copper is exactly the same except deoxidize with salt and vinegar. Aluminum is a coarse grain metal so when you open bite you get a natural aquatint. Copper is smooth grained material and so an aquatint must be applied. You should apply an off set aquatint. This procedure will be explained in the next section.
