Kitchen Lithography Redux

[@mikulaskalny4580]

The difference between vinegar and coke is that coke contains gum arabic, and therefore is closer to etching solutions used in stone litography. I believe the gum arabic protects the hydrophilic parts of the plate during the etching. Anyway, thank you for the gorgeous and informative video!

[@twinbeepress]

Excellent! Yes, thank you! I was guessing about all of this and I appreciate you offering your knowledge here. Thank you also for being so kind about my video.

[@peterbonucci9661]

I'm no chemist, but I've noticed the cola has phosphoric acid in the ingredients. In some aluminum plate videos, they use phosphoric acid with the gum arabic.

[@twinbeepress]

Totally! I know that TAPEM for aluminum plate etching uses phosphoric. It's still surprising to me that a thin sheet like aluminum foil still works under similar conditions. (I'm no chemist either)

[@CameraEd1]

Would it work better if you did the etch before you used the oil to dissolve the image?

[@twinbeepress]

Worth trying, I mean we do etch a litho stone before the dissolve/rub up part so that logic makes sense. If I get back to this process some time soon, I'll get that a go.

[@madhvisrivastava3131]

Hi....can we use direct aluminium plate,instead of using aluminium foil? Will that work?

[@twinbeepress]

It should, my understanding is that the cola's ingredients react to the aluminum. We used foil because a lot of people watching the video didn't have access to aluminum plate. I would try it, if you don't have traditional chemistry like TAPEM or Gum Arabic.

[@isabeedemski3635]

Flashing!

[@juljos9343]

I will definitely try this

[@k-elyse3949]

Thank you! This actually worked well. I'm just having trouble reprinting...

[@twinbeepress]

What trouble are you having? I'll do my best to diagnose

Thanks! Nice

[@markv3559]

Wait... you wipe before etching? How does that work?

[@twinbeepress]

It can work because it removes grease that would potentially show up in the print. I've done it with wiping before and without, so I don't think it's necessary. I was following someone else's tutorial on that one. Plenty of people don't so I don't think it's 100% needed

[@markv3559]

@@twinbeepress , I really appreciate you and others for sharing your experimentation and knowledge on this, and for further taking the time to answer questions. Great video, and it certainly goes to show I don't really understand why this process works as I thought the grease pen was a resist for the acid. Regardless, I pulled a couple of pretty terrible prints tonight, but it worked more or less and it was awesome! Thanks to your videos. I'll keep experimenting - trying to turn this into a high school metal shop class project. Cheers!

[@twinbeepress]

@@markv3559 thank you! I have failed a lot at this, i just didn't record it. I know some people have better luck with sharpie pens, so that may be worth trying. Best of luck.

[@filiplazz]

can you use normal oil ink for oil paintings? what are the alternatives to the expensive and bulky (at least in my country) litho/relief ink? What can you draw the image with?

[@twinbeepress]

Hmmm. I've never tried it but I am going to guess at what may happen. The oil-based ink often has waxes and driers and other additives that condition it for an even drying time and helps it roll out. Oil paint is likely to have a different combination of wax/oil/pigment/additives so it's likely to behave differently. You can buy small tubes of oil-based ink if it's just the size. Since lithography-especially Kitchen Litho-is so fussy, introducing new variables may make things difficult. That said, if you try it and it works, then maybe it's doing something better than oil-based printmaking ink does. Long way of saying I don't know but I have doubts.

[@丸金-l7m]

Thanks for the video ！I tried many ways ,also failed many times. All of them just worked well at first print .Actually,cola seems doesn’t work for me.😂

[@twinbeepress]

Oh no! My students had mixed success too, meaning lots of failures. I couldn't get sharpie to work,so I used litho crayons, yet all of them said sharpie or permanent marker was the best, most reliable. If you haven't tried it yet, maybe sharpie will do it

[@twinbeepress]

@@丸金-l7m Excellent! I'm glad the sharpie worked for you. I should probably update the video.

[@丸金-l7m]

Patrick Vincent Great, I'm looking forward to your new videos！