Introduction to Soft Ground Etching & Chine Collé with Sally Weatherill
Venue: Gainsborough’s House
The traditional intaglio technique of soft ground etching allows for a softer line quality than that of hard ground etching.
Using a pencil, images can be drawn onto newsprint that is placed directly on top of the grounded plate. Where the pencil applies pressure, the soft ground is pulled from the etching plate onto the back of the newsprint, leaving bare areas of plate which are subsequently etched.
Chine collé is a printmaking technique that allows colour and/or texture to be added to a print. Thin paper (such as tissue paper), coated in glue on one side, is placed glue side up on the inked printing plate before it is run through the press. In this way, the image on the plate is printed onto the tissue at the same time that the tissue is glued to the printing paper.
The name, chine collé comes from French. Chine translates to China (and alludes to the thin papers that were imported from there and first used in this way), and collé means glued or pasted.
In this course you will learn how to prepare a zinc plate and apply the soft ground wax before progressing to image making and finally, printing.
During the session, you will learn how to:
- File plate edges
- Polish the plate
- Degrease the plate
- Apply the soft ground
- Create the image
- Etch a plate in two tones using nitric acid
- Prepare paper for printing
- Ink and print the plate
- Add chine collé for colour
All materials are included: two 10 x 15cm zinc plates, cartridge paper, tissue paper, ink and use of studio tools and equipment.
Please book your tickets on the Gainsborough’s House website
Tickets for all Print Workshop Courses can be cancelled up to one month beforehand. Refunds will be given after this date only if the place is re-sold.
About Sally:
Sally Weatherill is an abstract artist whose work in paint and print invites viewers to reflect on themes of transience, memory, and the layered traces of time. Her pieces often explore the idea of the palimpsest — where marks, textures, and images build up, fade, and re-emerge, creating rich, complex surfaces that hint at what lies beneath.
Originally from the US, Sally studied art history and textile design before moving to the UK, where she established her studio on the Essex/Suffolk border. For over two decades, she enjoyed a successful career as a textile designer and weaver before returning to fine art to complete an MA at the City & Guilds of London Art School.
Sally now shares her passion for printmaking as a Print Fellow at City & Guilds and as a print technician at Gainsborough’s House. Her work reflects a deep love of process, material, and the quiet power of layered imagery.
