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Burnishers and Scrapers
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Burnishers and scrapers are used to polish or remove a burr on the plate. A scraper actually removes (scrapes) material and a burnisher is used to flatten and polish a spot on the plate. The material is not scraped away but only smoothened or polished. These tools are used to make corrections in a plate, but also in making a mezzotint. A mezzotint rocker is used to create an even grain on the plate. If the plate should be printed after the rocking procedure it would print as an even dark black. However, the plate will not be printed like this, but burnishers and scrapers will be used to modify the plate surface. There were these tools are used on the plate, the capacity to hold ink will decrease and hence produce a lighter tone. In this manner the whole plate will be worked, creating in the end, images on paper with all the tonal values in it. |