Technical Research

Part of the mission of Zea Mays Printmaking is to research new developments in safer, less-toxic and non-toxic printmaking. Our goal is to find materials and processes that can replace solvent-based, toxic printmaking techniques while maintaining quality.

Each research project sets out to discover the best practices for a particular technique, product or formula. The projects include a summarized version of the research with "how-to" instructions, as well as the detailed experiments with extensive notes and photographs.

The research was done by Zea Mays Printmaking interns, under the supervision of Liz Chalfin, the studio’s founding director.

We will be adding new research projects as they are completed.

Technical Research

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Acrylic Manière Noire

Researchers: Zoe Dong and Megan Ogden, 2019 In 2017, Artist in Residence Marnix Everaert shared a process with us that looked like mezzotint, but was achieved by using acrylic mediums on an etched, aquatinted copper plate. One of the advantages of this is that one plate can be used over and over again for different images For this experiment we were exploring this processes in an attempt to make...

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Airbrush Aquatint Formula

Researchers: Audrey Blood and Jenny Gover, 2014 Aquatint is a method of creating tonal value in intaglio printmaking. An acrylic ground is applied in a fine particulate spray onto a degreased plate and then hardened. The acrylic spray acts as a resist, allowing an etching mordant to bite around the particles of ground that have adhered to the surface of the plate, creating a smooth, even tone. Our task was to...

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Alternative to Solvents in Monotype

Researchers: Stephanie Motyka and Kristina Key, 2015 Our task was to find safer, less toxic replacements for VOC solvents used in monotype to create fluid textures, reticulated tones, and marks. We tested many different products on both Akua and oil-based ink, but decided to concentrate on Akua since the oil-based ink was more challenging to get good results. The products we used on both PETG and aluminum...

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Baking Soda Aquatint

Researchers: Adelaide Elkin and Tyrone Quigley, 2024-25 Introduced by Andrew Baldwin to Liz Chalfin in 2024, this process removes the need for an airbrush and compressor and the use of acrylics in creating etchings with tonal aquatints. It involves dusting baking soda atop uncured BIG ground, that is then rinsed after baking and curing. At this stage an aquatint-like surface is created on the plate.

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Copper Sulfate Saline Etching for Aluminum

Original Researchers: Melissa Mandell and Chelsea Mullins - 2011 Follow-up Researchers: Tessa Chambers and Nick Osetek - 2018 The copper sulfate saline etch is a salt-based etching mordant designed for silvery metals such as aluminum, zinc and mild steel. Our main task was focusing on aluminum plates and creating a ‘closed-loop’ system that recycles or re-purposes the displaced copper residue from the mordant.

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Creating a Plant Based Screen Printing Ink

Researchers: Rachel Rinker, Liz Chalfin & Marjorie Morgan, 2022 Tony(a) Lemos and Dominique Pecce, 2022-2023 This research was conducted to create non-toxic screen printing inks made from the concentrated dyes of natural materials with consistent results. The research was continued by using the wheat starch base recipe and adding various plant-based dyes made in-studio.

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Creating a Transparent Base for Etching Ink

Researchers: Angela Zammarelli and Michael Barrett Update Researchers: Olivia Arau McSweeney, Pace Knowles-Donnelly and Margo Temple, 2014 and 2019 This research was conducted to create a comparable substitute for the very popular and no longer commercially available Faust Transparent Base Extender Q699. Through our research we were able to create our own Transparent Base using simple and easily obtainable...

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Etching Silver Metals in Copper Sulfate Mordant

Researchers: Delaney Dumm and Haley Kean, 2023-24 The purpose of conducting research on silver metals such as steel, aluminum, and zinc is to provide information to etchers using copper sulfate solutions to obtain consistent results and expectations with these materials. Plates of zinc, aluminum, and steel were covered in BIG ground, and then drawn on with varying line values. The metals were also tested for...

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Flocculating Acrylics

Researchers: Catherine Aiello and Lydia Giangregorio, 2021 In a printmaking studio, artists produce large amounts of wastewater containing acrylic particles, which have proven to be toxic to humans and the environment. Zea Mays Printmaking aims to define a practical method for flocculating and filtering out acrylic particles to create clean, pH neutral wastewater before disposal.

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Glue as Stop Out

Researchers: Olivia Arau McSweeney, Pace Knowles-Donnelly, Margo Temple, 2019 We experimented with using glue as stop out in etching as a substitute for acrylic mediums used in many contemporary stop-out formulas. Research shows that some acrylics can be toxic to humans and the environment. In this experiment, we used both synthetic and natural glues with varying results.

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Installing and Experimenting with Non-Toxic Letterpress

Researchers: Emma Warren and Julia Schirrmeister, 2016-2017 Letterpress printmaking has traditionally been a toxic process because of the ways people cleaned up the ink, rollers and type. Our goal was to set up and transform this medium into a non-toxic process, making our studio safer and more sustainable.

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Intaglio Photo Transfer with Press-N-Peel Film

Researchers: Stephanie Gaumond, Liz Bannish, Cathe Janke, Kristin Fitzpatrick, 2013 Updated Research: Olivia Arau McSweeney, Pace Knowles-Donnelly, Margo Temple, 2019 The prospect of making photo etchings without the need for UV light exposure is intriguing. This research explored the use of Press-n-Peel PCB Blue, an iron-on transfer film patented by Techniks Inc., to make photo etchings without the need for...

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Metal Polish Alternatives

Researchers: Claire Crews and Sam Guerin 2017 This project sought a non-toxic and easily accessible alternatives to Putz Pomade as a metal polish for copper etching plates. Putz Pomade contains kerosene which has been found to have negative health effects when breathed in or in contact with the skin, particularly with repeated exposure. We were interested in finding a substance that polishes small scratches...

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Non-Conventional Aquatint

Researchers: Claire Crews and Sam Guerin, 2017 In addition to being safer to use than rosin or spray paint, our Zea Mays Printmaking Airbrush Aquatint Solution is also more malleable than traditional rosin methods. Our goal in this research was to experiment with some of these possible techniques as a means to showcase just how versatile acrylic spray aquatints can be.

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Photographic Silk Aquatint

Researchers: Mady Lacaprucia and McKenzie Stuetzel 2017 Our goal was to research a new method of producing a photographic intaglio plate using screen printing techniques and materials. While we worked on refining the steps of this process to create prints that represent the original image as closely as possible, we discovered there are also many stylistic and experimental twists that can be brought to this...

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Sandpaper Aquatint

Researchers: Laura Sheys and Andrea Santos, 2011 Updated Research: Olivia Arau McSweeney, Pace Knowles-Donnelly, Margo Temple, 2019 This technique uses sandpaper to create a smooth even aquatint on a copper plate grounded with BIG (Baldwin Intaglio Ground). The grounded plate is run through an etching press with 400 grit sandpaper to create an impression. which is then etched in a Ferric Chloride bath.

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Screen Printing with Natural Earth Pigments and Wheat Starch-Based Ink

Researchers: Ava Harper and Maggie Sullivan, 2024 We were interested in using the wheat starch based recipe from “Creating a Plant Based Screen Printing Ink” to test the viability of natural pigment powders for screen printing. Using this method, you can cook your own transparent base (T-Base) for screen printing, and use natural pigments to have a printing practice that does not produce any toxic waste.

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Soft Ground Drawing with BIG (Baldwin Intaglio Ground)

Researchers: Lyell Castonguay and Brianna Ashe, 2010 We’ve been experimenting with several different substitutes for traditional soft ground. An early, safer substitute for traditional soft ground etching consisted of a mixture of water-based block printing ink and several acrylic mediums. However, the problem that we encountered with this formula was that we only had a 20-minute drawing time before the grou...

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Soy Wax/Litho Ink Soft Ground

Researchers: Kevin Pomerleau and Daniel Chiaccio, 2015 Soft Ground is a very impressionable, acid resistant, wax based medium which allows an artist to obtain delicate pencil-like lines and direct object impressions through etching. Similar to the traditional characteristics of an asphaltum based soft ground, the Soy Wax ground begins as a solid, liquifies when exposed to heat, but reverts back to a solid...

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Spit Bite With Airbrushed Acrylic Resist Aquatint

Researchers: Olya Alekseeva and Sarah Zidonik, 2010 We began our research to better understand and perfect problems that arose in our original spit bite attempts in combination with Z-Acyrl hard ground emulsion. The following experiments involved coating plates in variable spray densities and exposing the plates to different mordant strengths.

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White Ground Alternatives

Researchers: Katelyn St. John and Olivia Stanislaus, 2016 White Ground (or Soap Ground) is a wonderful intaglio mark making technique whereby a soapy, paint like formula is painted onto a metal plate to create light values. It dissolves during the etching process, giving beautiful, unpredictable tonal effects. Our interest was in finding non-toxic and easily accessible replacements for the different...