Day 6 final piece

First off i wanted to use lyrics that meant something to me, something that would give the guitar meaning like i said i wanted to besides it looking old and worn so i drew out a silohet of me and my brother standing on the beach watching the sun set, this shows a brothers love, something that can stand the test of time just like i want the guitar to appear, like it has stood the test of time. 

To do this i cut out a stencil on tracing paper so then when the ink was used it wouldnt go any where else on the copper and disfigure the copper sheet where I wouldn't want it to be disfigured. This did not go to plan as when the polishing ink was painted on it blead underneath the tracing and so the ink was disfigured.

To make the silohet back into the shape it was supposed to be i used an etching tool to scratch away the black polish where I didn't want it to be, to make the silohet actually look like the image it was supposed to. Once i had done this it was then time to use the stop out pen to write on the lyrics, this didn't go to plan the first time round and so luckily i had some wire wool to scratch away the lyrics which were in the wrong place. This then gave me space to draw out where the pick ups would go and to then re-right the lyrics on in a better position.

Once i had put all the ink on the scratch plate and taped up the back so that the acid wouldn't eat away at the back and leave me with nothing,it was then time to put it in the acid bath. The stop out ink would leave the areas covered raised up where as the un covered areas the acid would eat away at the copper and leave a shiny finish.

After 10 minutes in the acid bath it was time to put into the water bath to stop the acidic reaction and so that we could pick it up with our hands without being burnt or our skin being stained. Then it was to sand the scratch plate down with wire wool and take off the polish to leave a shiny copper surface on the scratch plate which would then be ready to stain.

Here is the finished copper plate on the guitar once stained. From the glare of the light you can see the raised lyrics and silohet of me and my brother. The staining effect was after it was blackened, after fully blackened i then used wire wool to make the scratch plate look old, battered and burned and so it would bring out the lyrics and the silohet even more than they were before hand.