artools soft ball ground

Ball ground is a traditional product in the art of printmaking.

It is used to obtain in soft strokes in printmaking as if they were made with pencil or charcoal.

The ball ground is applied freely on the preheated plate and spread in thin layers with a soft fabric tampon. The uniform layer thus prepared on the plate is treated with a pencil point or other similar tool by placing paper of different roughness grades between the tool and the surface, depending on the type of line to be obtained.

The pressure of the pencil or utensil on the paper removes the wax ball ground and this obviously depends on the type of tip used and the strength of the hand pressure.

There is also another technique such as that of using the wax ball ground pressing through it, on the prepared plate, different materials such as fabrics, leaves, threads, cords, rough paper and others, with the aim of obtaining the reproduction of various patterns on the plate.

The texture of the patterns can also be achieved by placing the materials or objects on the prepared plate with the wax ball ground, superimposing a sheet of parchment paper and passing it all through the etching press with very light pressure. With this procedure the plate will show in the finest details the textures of the overlaid materials. The following etching process will incise the plate as desired.

Solvents: turpentine, pure alcohol.