Creating an aquatint.

You can use a rosin dust for this. This is a wooden box containing a paddle designed to create air currents inside the box. By turning a crank attached to the outside, the powder is stirred up inside the box and remains suspended in the air.

Now open the door, after which you can place the plate on the grid. The powder can now settle very evenly onto the surface of the plate.

When using the dusting box, you will need resin powder or asphalt powder. You don’t need much; the paddle must create an air current to produce a cloud of particles. Next, turn the crank, taking care to turn it particularly vigorously the first time, just as the paddle makes contact with the powder at the bottom of the box. This will cause a lot of resin powder to become airborne, allowing you to select the most suitable grain size. The larger grains settle first, as they are the heaviest. If this is the grain size you require, a short time will suffice. For a finer grain, first allow the heavy resin grains to settle, and when only a little fine powder is still swirling around, place the plate in the box for about 3 minutes. If this proves insufficient, repeat the entire process, taking care not to disturb the resin powder that has settled on the plate.

If the grain is coarse, there is a risk that it will be too visible in the dark areas of the print. If the grain is too fine, it can cause crève. A medium-sized grain may be suitable if you wish to achieve varied tonal shades. It is better to dust the plate with resin two or three times if you want to ensure a durable plate, as a single application usually results in a weak plate that wears easily. When applying the resin several times, start with a large grain and use a smaller one for each subsequent layer.
The resin is set using heat. To do this, place the plate on a raised grid and heat the underside with a Bunsen burner. The flame must not be too intense and must be moved back and forth continuously until the resin granules become transparent. If the plate is not heated sufficiently, the resin will not bond; if it is overheated, the granules will melt together, sometimes making it impossible to etch between them. With a ‘standard’ heating table, you cannot melt the powder onto the plate, as the temperature is too low. With the VTS heating table, however, this is possible, as the maximum temperature is approximately 190 degrees.  However, using a Bunsen burner sometimes has the advantage of allowing you to focus extra attention on specific areas. It also enables you to see how the granules melt; enough to adhere to the plate, but not so hot that they burn..

This cross-section shows the difference between a plate covered with large (A) and smaller resin granules. It can be seen that the smaller granules adapt to the gaps left by the previous granule, and how, in the areas that have already been etched, the resulting grain appears to be more resistant to pressure.