NON-TOXIC Etching on Copper...

OK, so I got a bunch of emails asking me to tell how I did it.

I am going to digress a number of times and tell you what I learned, so bear with me.

I tell you, it is a blast.  And to think the worst that can happen is I electrocute myself.

What you will need:
Kosher Salt and/or Washing Soda
Plastic container (you cannot use a metal... unless you want to electrocute yourself)
Stamp with your favorite images
Super Fine Embossing Powder (there are other choices, I will explain those later)
Heat Gun
Iron
Newsprint or copy paper
Steel Wool
Piece of Copper
Battery Charger for the car (or anything that will give you a DC current)
2 pieces of Copper Wire to serve as a conductor (don't put the leads in the water, you will explode)
2 bolts
Packing Tape

Step One:
Fill plastic container with lukewarm water.  You only need enough water to completely submerge the bolts and the copper plate. Make sure that the container is bigger than the piece of copper that you want to etch.  I used the pink plastic wash bucket from the hospital.

Now you want to create a saturated salt solution.   You want to add as much Kosher Salt to the water as possible.  How much is enough you ask?  When the salt will no longer dissolve, then the water is saturated.  DO NOT USE TABLE SALT. 

Digression:  I stuck my bucket in the microwave and got the water hot so that the salt/washing soda would dissolve quicker.  I just put it to the side to get lukewarm while I did the rest.  Plus this extra step allows you to take the water to its saturation point.

Digression: If you just do salt or washing soda, you are going to get a very clean, flat etching (like the Paris one that I posted the other day).  When I combined the two products, I got a deeper and pitted etching.  My personal opinion is that the Kosher Salt worked better by itself than the Washing Soda for a smooth etching.  And by better I mean that the solution conducted the electricity better.  But I liked the combination of the two the best.  Just try it and see what you like.

Step 2: GET CREATIVE WITH YOUR COPPER PLATES
Grab your favorite images.  You are going to want to stamp and emboss the images on the  copper sheet.  I used Super Fine as compared to regular, UTEE or Distress.

Digression:  Now, you can use a transparency that has been run thru a laser printer.  Just remember to mirror image if you have words. Then you are going to take a piece of paper and iron the image onto the copper.  You can also simply use a sharpie and draw the image onto the copper sheet.

Digression:  The other thing that I learned is that even if you stamp and emboss your first image, then over stamp and emboss a second, you have not created a mask on the copper.  OK, so what am I actually saying.  Do you see the scratch marks over the words on the left side, the letters still showed up.  They just showed up as letters with lines in them.

Cover the back of the copper sheet with packing tape.  You do not want to have the solution eat thru the back while it is eating thru the front.  Trust me on this one.  You end up with a pink tub full of orange slug.

Step 3: WE ARE ALMOST THERE... JUST GOT TO PREP, SUBMERGE AND WAIT FOR BUBBLES.
Now you are going to wrap a blot onto the ends of the copper wire.  I actually wrapped the copper wire in the threads so that they got a direct contact with the metal.

THE BOLTS WRAPPED IN COPPER WIRE GET ATTACHED TO THE NEGATIVE LEAD.  THE BLACK LEAD FOR THOSE WHO LIKE ME LIVE IN THE WORLD OF COLOR.

You can submerge them in the water.

Digression:  DO NOT CUT THE WIRE, IT IS HARD TO GET THE LEAD TO HOLD ONTO BOTH WIRES AT THE SAME TIME AND DIRECT A CURRENT.

You are going to take another piece of copper wire so that you can use it to touch the copper plate to transfer the electricity.

OK, so I just jimmy rigged mine.  I taped the back of the copper plate, then I did this little bending thing to get it to attach to the back with more packing tape.  Then I bent it some more so that it touched the front of the copper plate.

Submerge the copper plate and wire contraption in the salt water solution.  DO NOT ATTACH THE RED LEAD YET.  IF YOU HAVE A GOOD CONNECTION, YOU WILL GET ELECTROCUTED.

ONCE YOU ATTACH THE RED LEAD, YOU WILL SEE THAT THE BOLT STARTS TO BUBBLE. 

Can you see why I now told you not to attach the red lead until after it is in the salt water?

Digression:  If it does not bubble, just keep moving the copper wire until you get the bubbles.  You may not have a good connection to the copper.  It may be on the embossed area.  It may need to be jimmied some more until you have enough copper wire touching the plate.  If it still does not work, just add more salt, the solution may not have enough salt.  I also left my charger plugged in because it will lose the charge very quickly.

The longer you leave it in the deeper the etching.  How long is long?  Depending on your solution and the rate of the bubbles, I would say at least five but maybe 10 minutes. I waited for the water to have a wonderful orange slug with funny green and black specs in it.

When you take it out, it should look something like this...

Step 4: CLEANING THEM UP AND SEEING YOUR ART!!

Run the plate under the water and rinse off the rust and slug.  If you need to etch them more, just stick them back in the bucket and do it again until you have what you want. 

Once there, you will dry them off and plug up the iron.  I used copy paper to simply iron off the embossing powder.

Now let me be clear, you are not ironing a shirt.  You are simply reheating the embossing powder and letting it absorb into the paper.  Once the paper comes fairly clean, reach for the extra fine steel wool and buff until you have a shine.

Tada!!!  This is what you will get.

OK, so for this one, I stamped and embossed the D on the copper.  Then I created a paper mask for the D image.  I then stamped and embossed the numbers around the first image.

I left this piece of copper in the solution for over 10 minutes and the etching is very deep. Sorry for the cloudy photo, the scanner bed is dirty.

From this photo I learned that finner detailed images do not need as much time to work as do the bolder images.

I used only one bolt rather than two to control the pace of the etching.

OK, for this image I followed the same steps as above.  I did not leave it in the solution as long.  The result was that the etching was not as deep.

Also, if your copper lead in not in the middle of the plate somewhere, the etching at the opposite end will take longer. 

Can you see how the number 2 in this one has less distress detail than in the one above.  That is because the stamp had more embossing ink on it and/or I pressed harder on it when I was stamping.

OK, this one is my favorite of all the variations.  I left this in for about 15 minutes.  I had two bolts rather than one. 

The solution was more salt than washing soda.  I also left some washing soda undissolved in the bottom of the bucket.  Some of the grains stayed on top of the copper and gave me that pitted look. 

I also did this one before I started getting tired.  My stamping was on the money with this one. 

The planets aligned for me to get this one.

This one I did not leave in long enough.  I also think that the solution had gotten worn out.  I had etched three others before it.  I probably should have added more salt or just changed the water to make another fresh solution.

No complaints, just what happened.  So the lesson from this one is don't get lazy or tried.

The cloudy is the scanner, not the copper.  It is also not any darker, I just had to set the contrast to get a decent scan.

I did this one to see how a worded stamp would work.  I am pleasantly surprised at how well this turned out. 

I over stamped the scratches on this one.

So now what am I going to do with these things. 

You will just have to wait and see.  I can't tell you everything.  But I do have a few ideas swimming in this head of mine.

I am going to crop this weekend.  I hope to finish these up and at the same time get another done for a design team call.

So I hope that helps,

until we meet again,

 

 

Comments

[Debbie]

B E A U T I F U L...I can see something happening with these! LOVE THEM !

[Valonda L.]

That is so neat! Thanks for sharing the details. I cant' wait to try it...just have to go get the copper.
Valonda L.

[Belinda]

HI! Thanks so much for the tutorial. I will need to try it. I am not fully understanding how the circuit works.

I get the stamp the front of the copper plate and put tape on the back so it does not eat through the copper.

I get the salt water bath. I have plenty of kosher salt.

I am not fully getting the circuit.

So, you wrap one end of copper wire around the bolt. The other end gets connected to the negative lead on the battery charger (black lead)?

Then you take the other copper wire and attach it to the copper plate and submerge in the salt bath. Part of the wire would be sticking up so you can attach it to the positive lead on the charger (red lead)?

Is that correct?

Thanks
Belinda
crazyartgirl@sbcglobal.net

[Lauren Nwachukwu]

You got it.

I wrapped the wire around the threads of the bolt because I got a MUCH better connection.

I then just took a nice long piece of wire and wrapped it around the piece of copper so that I did not have to worry about it falling off.

Also, the more wire surface that touches the copper plate, the heavier an etching.

hope that helps,
L

[Edie Simons]

You are such a hoot! I think you should write a book with all the situations you get your self into. Reading your blog is honestly really entertainment.
So, is your husband back in Africa now? Have you ever gone with him? Do you think he might have another family over there that you don't know about? I think I would be thinkin on those lines... But I'm very suspicious anyway.

The copper thing is really cool! I'd love to try it. Do you know if this would work on silver sheet too? Let me know.

Edie

[Lauren Nwachukwu]

I am going to take pictures of what I did this weekend tomorrow.

I did it on aluminum sheeting from the man store. This was a completely different look.

I do not know if it will work on silver, but I do not see why not.

Give it a try and let me know what happens!!!

love ya like cooked food.

[Kristy Christopherson]

VERY kewl! I just saw your book in the By Hand Newsletter and had to look you up-your project in there was awesome and has me itching to try this :)