Introduction to the Art of Zinc Engraving

Translation

Introduction to the Art of Zinc Engraving

Engraving art is one of the oldest arts that humans have practiced and excelled in. Zinc engraving is among the techniques with qualities that allow its practitioners multiple uses. As much as engraving art is a craft and industry, it is also a broad field for aesthetic research and creative brilliance, especially in our modern time when methods have developed and artistic materials have multiplied before talents. It is a tool and available means for opening new horizons of discovery and innovation.

The foundation of this art is based on the principle of benefiting from the natural properties of some metals (and their ability to resist oxidation and rust), and on their rate of reaction with chemical materials.

Zinc comes at the forefront of these metals, as it is a raw material with useful properties. It exists in the form of carbonate, sulfide, or silicate, and is manufactured as sheets and foils that are used for several important applications, including printing called (zincography).

The art of zinc engraving has multiple implementation stages that can be briefly indicated to show how to produce an artistic work:

Stage of Drawing Shapes:

• The artist prepares the zinc sheet in the size he determines for the painting
• He covers the surface of the sheet prepared for drawing with a special varnish called (etching varnish) so that a thin, insulating, and level layer is formed from it
• The artist uses a special needle with which he engraves his lines and formations on the insulating layer, so this layer is removed by means of the needle from all the designated locations, so the face of the zinc sheet appears exposed in some places and covered with the insulating material in other places until the required shapes are completed and the artist is satisfied with them

(Therefore, the material being shaped here is the insulating layer that covers the zinc surface.)

Translation

Zinc Engraving:

The zinc etching process is carried out using one of the chemical acids that zinc metal reacts with at varying rates according to the duration of its contact with them. Therefore, the artist immerses the zinc piece on which he formed his painting in the acid for a certain period, so the acid affects the exposed surfaces of the zinc piece from which the artist removed the insulating material, while all the covered parts remain intact. When all the insulating material is removed, a zinc forming plate is produced, prepared for another stage.

Printing:

The formed zinc piece is inked with special printing ink, and a porous paper of a certain thickness is prepared, moistened with water, and placed on the plate, then pressed with a pressing machine, so that the piece of paper absorbs the ink distributed on (the formed areas) and thus produces an original first impression of this artwork that you see displayed with us.

*The paper picks up the ink from the engraved lines on the zinc sheet.