Etchings | Engravings ETCHING is the technique of reproducing a design by coating a metal plate with wax and drawing with a sharp instrument called a stylus through the wax down to the metal. The plate is put in an acid bath, which eats away the incised lines; it is then heated to dissolve the wax. Ink is forced through tiny lines and grooves that have been applied to a copper plate. A wet piece of paper is laid onto the plate and forced through a roller, which then creates a print. The resulting print is called the etching.
ENGRAVING is the technique of making prints from metal plates into which a design has been incised with a cutting tool called a burin. Modern examples are almost invariably made from copperplates; hence, the process is also called copperplate engraving. Another term for the process, line engraving, derives from the fact that this technique reproduces only linear marks. Tone and shading, however, can be suggested by making parallel lines or crosshatching.
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