These two prints are handmade by Curtis using a centuries-old etching process called soft ground etching. The medium is a specific type of printmaking under the umbrella of Intaglio, which is the Italian word meaning "to etch." Intaglio printmaking was once a state-of-the-art commercial process, second in age to relief printing. Woodcut is a type of relief printing and is the method that was used to print the world’s first book – The Gutenberg Bible. Relief, Intaglio and their successor Lithography, are obsolete commercially. Artists have kept them alive because the mark-making potential is very unique. 

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For soft ground etching, a greasy ground is rolled on to a copper plate at roughly 125 degrees. The ground then sets up a bit as the plate cools but never hardens. At this point, the plate is placed on a drawing board where two sheets of paper are placed over it. The sheet nearest to the plate is called the lift paper and it consists of a thin Japanese Mulberry paper. The top sheet is a smooth, thin sheet of drafting vellum. A drawing is executed on the vellum sheet and as this is done, the soft ground is lifted from the plate in various degrees depending on the amount of pressure applied while drawing. The more pressure applied, the darker the resulting mark will print. When finished, the copper will be exposed reflecting the drawing done on the top vellum sheet. The plate is then placed in a bath of Ferric Chloride for 45 minutes to etch. The Ferric Chloride – a corrosive salt – will etch away and create a textured groove wherever the plate has been exposed. On the copper plate, where the ground stays intact, the plate will be protected from etching and will remain smooth. After the plate is etched, the soft ground is removed from the plate. See the sample etched copper plate below.

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At this point, the plate is ready to be inked. An oil-based ink is spread on the plate much as one would spread butter on toast. Next a starched cheesecloth, called Tarlatan, is used to lightly wipe the plate taking the excess ink from the smooth parts of the plate and pushing in ink into the etched areas. The final step before printing is a brisk wipe with the hand over the plate which will even out any plate tone caused by thin ink residue.

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Now the plate is ready to print. It is placed face up on the bed of an etching press. It is then covered with a pre-dampened cotton printmaking paper. The plate and paper are then covered with two wool blankets before being sent under a roller which exerts several tons of pressure pushing the dampened paper into the textured, inked grooves. At this point the print has been completed. These steps of inking and printing are repeated until the entire edition has been completed.

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You can learn much more about this process on the internet; here’s one sample web page:
https://magical-secrets.com/process/