Non Toxic Etching-Waivering Faith

It has been several years since I graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute with a degree in printmaking. It was a second degree-a chance to get it right and do what I had always wanted to do. . . which makes me think of this poem, which I know is seen a lot, but nevertheless I quote in its entirely here:

Dream Deferred

"What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?"

by Langston Hughes

Anyway, there I learned all the gorgeous, traditional etching techniques and found my medium in etching. I also became increasingly frightened of its toxic side. The first time through college etching (when I was 18 and immortal) there was no anxiety about the poisons in the etching studio but later in my thirties when I breathed in Nitric Acid or Dutch Mordant fumes, sucked down rosin and talc powders, absorbed laquer thinner and mineral spirits, cadmiums-God knows what else-I couldn't avoid thinking about when or if I was going to get around to having a baby and once I did would I mind if all the chemicals had given the baby two heads. Oh, yeah, I love the chemicals they gave me - grounds you could glide through, blackest aquatints, spit bites as easy as water color, effortless clean up and that great, moving studio smell (plus, we know there is a real machismo out there about self protection and art materials). I could have continued working that way forever- But like I said. it was later in life for me, and I knew I needed to find a way to etch that I (and any other critters in the world around me) could live with. I needed to learn how to etch safely.

So upon graduating and trying to get pregnant I started down the short (historically) but uphill road through the world of non-toxic (or less toxic) printing. So, one baby, one dog, three houses, three cities and three years later, I am still trying to find what works for me. To be honest, I often wonder if the years more life I get by working with these non-toxic materials will compensate for the ten years it takes me to get a satisfying print out of them! An exaggeration, as I have been pleased with some results I've gotten. They were hard won-hence the name of the blog "Hard Ground". But that is what I hope to do here -I want to share what is working for me among the techniques and products I've tried, and it is my greatest hope that you other printers out there will contribute so we can get this thing down-and talk about what really matters-the work! Maybe a little of both.