Hi Everyone! This week in the printmaking studio we got to experiment with etching on Tetra Paks, which is just the multiply paper-plastic-foil material inside of food packaging like chicken broth or matcha boxes. We just cut some boxes up and did some drypoint etching with the needle on the inside of the boxes. I decided to do a little ocean scene with some waves, a sailboat, the sun, and some birds. I first drew the drawing in pen onto the tetra pak and then traced over it with the needle. It was fairly easy to carve into the material and it also held up better than I thought while printing. For some of the details on the boat and the birds, I peeled up the top layer of the material so that the ink would sink into it and create a solid, filled in shape. I then added the waves with some tape that I ripped up and started layering and it held up very nicely as well and added some depth to the etching.
For printing, I first started experimenting with black ink, paired with blue for the waves on the bottom and it printed pretty well. It gives a sort of eerie effect with the black and just the hint of color on one part. Then I decided I wanted all of it to have more color so I created a gradient with blue, red, and yellow and it came out amazing! I just wiped the different ink colors onto the plate and then blended them together with the tarlatan cloth and they came together very nicely. I printed that one twice, the second time adding more red with the yellow on top so it was more saturated. I even got to print it on one of my handmade papers and it held up very well! These are the results:
Overall I really enjoyed doing this little exercise with a new material. It is so fascinating how many different materials you can create etchings with, and just art overall. This is something I would’ve never thought of or expected myself, taking the inside of a box of chicken broth and turning it into art. I think the material adds such a cool scratchy linear texture to the piece as well and I am really satisfied with how these came out!
Thanks for reading!
Ella