Vitreography on A Galleon Halfwood Etching Press

Vitreography, also known as siligraphy, is the art of putting an image on grained or frosted glass and then coating it with silicon so it can be printed on an etching press like a lithograph. This video shows you how Bill Ritchie did it the first time he tried vitreography. Also, he tested one of his Halfwood etching presses, the Galleon.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• vitreography
• siligraphy
• waterless lithography
• Bill Ritchie
• Halfwood Press
• Seattle artist

[hungrymouths]

Wow, this is fantastic. I like how it frees the artist from giant, unmanageable stones and creates a plate that can be easily stored for printing at a later time!

Can the glass be resurfaced as a litho stone can? I would assume the thickness of the glass plate would determine this?

[omemeralda]

I've never done that, but I see no reason why not. You're just grinding off a coat of silicon, actually. Unless silicon is super tough stuff, but I don't know anything harder than carborundum grits. The glass will last a lot longer than stone, that's for sure. Glad you like my first attempt. I'm anxious to do more.

[Sailordoc3349]

Bill,

First of all thank you for making this video. It answered some questions about this process but it raised a few as well. I tried the Vitreograph but used etching ink instead of litho ink. The silicone/turp. coating did not seem to repel the etching ink. I did not have any litho ink which is why I used the etching ink. So is the litho ink somehow resistant to the silicone/turp. coating? I mixed the etching ink w/mag carbonate. I hope this makes a little sense. Thanks

Phil

[omemeralda]

I'm no expert, but I remember being told by Daniel Smith (have you seen the trailer?) that there's difference in the greasiness of etching ink and litho ink, even though they both come from linseed oil. I took no chances in this, my first effort with vitreography, followed the lesson on the Web, and sprung for a pound of rolling up black litho from Smith. I was amazed how MUCH Mag I had to put in before it stopped "hazing" over. I could barely roll it out, and still there was a detectable tone.

[charisacairn]

Beautiful! It was great to meet you and this press looks beautiful in Carol's studio. I cannot wait to see what she does with it. You are an inspiration.

[omemeralda]

Thanks, Charisa - Thanks to Carol, too, because her choice was the push I needed to do my first vitreograph. I'm jazzed!

[halfwoodpress]

The silicon HATES the drawing material, so it gets rubbed off when you BUFF it with the fabric. That leaves these blank areas where the drawing WAS--and when the washing with warm soapy water happens, every trace of the DRAWING material si wiped out. Nothing left then but those areas of silicon which you can't wash off for anything. Only blank ground glass, separated by silicon. Now, greasy ink LOVES blank, dry glass and silicon HATES that greasy stuff--you get an image when you roll across ink.

[okartist2be]

Boy. I'm confused but I'm not a print maker so no surprise. Will you explain a bit what the silicon step accomplishes and the washing? From a layman point of view, it looks like the baking would set the silicon in a completely flat surface so no drawing relief would remain. It then looks like the washing off would remove everything so what's left to print?

[cyberkitkat]

can you please make a list of materials one needs in order to do this? like type of glass and brush used to swipe the grit on the glass?