From tiny books to outdoors sculptural books

©2019 Barry Smith - Kindness standing out on one of the etched pages of the compassion sculpture books - note the patina of the salvaged-weathered aluminium sheet.

Over the weekend Fiona and I did the etching on the pages of the three large etched aluminium books we are making for the Compassion Artists' Book Exhibition. The largest book is going to be 800mm high and 600mm wide. Over on Fiona's blog you can checkout a few more images of the etching preparation and process.

We did the masking of the symbols and words not to be etched with paint pens.

©2019 Fiona Dempster - Barry filling in the the sketches Fiona has drawn on the aluminium.

©2019 Barry Smith - Symbol for compassion

©2019 Barry Smith - Symbol for compassion - two 600mm by 300mm covers ready for etching

Given the size of the pages-leaves of the largest book we needed to build an etching bath. We needed about 20litres of etching fluid in this bath - water, copper sulphate and cooking salt. The etching process results in quite a bit of heat and sludge.

©2019 Barry Smith - Fiona dissolving the copper sulphate and salt in the plastic lined bath

©2019 Barry Smith - Soft broom to move the copper sulphate and salt around 

©2019 Barry Smith - Fiona lifting one of the smaller pieces out of the etching bath - note the copper slide floating on the surface of the etching fluid and on the plate

We were using salvaged-weathered 1.5mm aluminium sheeting-plate. This is harder to etch because of oxidation that has occurred. Still the results are good if you accept the texture and patina of the weathered metal.

©2019 Barry Smith - An etched dot

©2019 Barry Smith - Etched front cover with compassion symbol standing out against the etched background

Hopefully we will get around to riveting the pages together during the week; and then be able to open the books. They will form a trio of books with the words - kindness, hope and care.

And because one has the etching mixture on the go there were a number of other bits that got etched including the sign for a 5 post sculpture I did a couple of years ago.

©2019 Barry Smith - Etched sign for the sculpture piece