Introduction to Electrolytic etching Workshop. Centro de las Artes de San Agustín (CASA), Etla, Oaxaca, Mexico. October 2009
The CASA is installed in an old textile factory restored and turned into an art center by initiative of the artist from Oaxaca, Francisco Toledo. Set in Etla, surrounded by a landscape of wooden hills, the space has residences and studios for artists, a library, a showroom, a digital workshop and a large printmaking workshop, that is well lit and equipped with three units of electrolytic etching.
The course aims to introduce the electro-etching process on plates of copper, zinc and iron. It is the first workshop where these three metals are used. Etching with electrolysis iron plates is highlighted as this metal is widely used by Mexican artists. However, iron is etched with nitric acid -that is a big drawback, as nitric acid produces highly toxic gases when used. I am very happy to offer electro-etching process as a safer alternative. On iron plates is possible to apply the same developed processes for copper and zinc plates.
Printmakers from Oaxaca, Puebla, and Monterrey attended the workshop, including the master Sergio de Osio, ideologue and coordinator of 'no-tóxico 09' a conference held in March this year in Monterrey. Resident artists in the CASA from Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia, also attended the course.
See the programe as pdf (Spanish)
Pictures from the workshop and etchings
