NON-TOXIC ETCHING EXPERIMENTS

So... I come back from participating in a one day etching workshop a bit frustrated. As you can imagine there is little one can achieve in a day using a very traditional wax hard ground and a slow biting ferric chloride on copper plate when the weather is cool. I manage a very unsatisfying, thinly drawn paint brush, which although it was in the ferric for 2hours did not achieve the richness I am use to with quick biting zinc and aluminum in copper sulphate.
I brought the plate home and was inspired to get my ferric chloride tank going again so that I could rework the brush. My tank has an outer tank of water which is heated, this speeds up the biting process, I also have citric acid added to my ferric, it gives a cleaner bite. I made an extra piece from deeply bitten aluminum and re printed using viscosity inking for the aluminum plate.

Happier than I was but not completely satisfied! But it is this bit that really interests me, I can see myself dispensing with the brush...watch this space.

I apologise for this post, it has been a bit technical, it has been aimed at my fellow non toxic etching enthusiasts. Let me know what you think?