Hannah Feuerstein is a German artist, born in Cardiff, Wales (1998), although her parents are German and she has German nationality. She traveled to Scotland when she was a young girl as a babysitter, and studied Fine Art between 2018 and 2021 at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD), Dundee, Scotland. Feuerstein has received the help that the Electro-etching Workshop-residence offers every year for artists under thirty with a degree in Fine Arts. She has also received training grants for coming to this workshop from the Hope Scott Trust and Creative Scotland.
Hannah has previous experience in electro-etching, as her etching and jewelry professor, Peter Yearwoth, was obviously familiar with electrolitic processes at his university, and had practiced etching thanks to my Electro-etching handbook. In addition, her university tutor, Anna Ólafsson, was in our workshop in 2018 (also with our modest help for young artists) and currently teaches electro-etching courses at the Dundee Contemporary Arts Center (DCA). I cannot help but feel proud in contributing, from the island of Gran Canaria, to the dissemination of these processes that are safer for the health of printmakers and the environment. Processes that also provide innovative graphic results that cannot be done with traditional etching techniques.
Hannah Feuerstein, who is also a ceramist, now has her own workshop where she has been electro-etching since 2021. She is a young and dynamic artist with a great interest and intuition for etching and artistic expression in general. During the two weeks that she has been in the studio she has worked lines on hard ground, tonal zones (electrotint) of open bite, as well as lines and electrotint on graphite ink varnish and Big red varnish, both very versatile techniques. She threw herself into practicing, above all, the graphite ink varnish. Likewise, she trained in semi-dry electro-etching, a technique that she did not know and in which she was very interested (see her work on this page). She also worked passive electrolytic etching, where the zinc plate is etched and the copper plate galvanised. She also practiced galvanised lines on copper plate.
Even I myself had the opportunity to advance with some processes that she already knew such as lift-ground for graphite ink, and we together prepared some solutions of the same process for Big red ground, both with success.
Presumably her stay will help her to continue etching and experimenting with electrolytic etching, and I have no doubt that electro-etching, with Feuerstein's practice, will advance a little further.
Pictures from the workshop
Hannah Feuerstein speaks about her experience in the workshop-residency
Nachdem ich an der Uni traditionelles radieren gelernt hatte erzählte mir mein Tutor, dass es eine wesentlich nachhaltiger Methode mit dem gleichen Ergebnis gäbe. Seit ungefähr einem Jahr habe ich mein eigenes Atelier mit Druckerpresse. Es war mir ein enormes Privileg von Alfonso Crujera zu der zwei Wöchigen Residenz eingeladen worden zu sein.
Der Aufenthalt war noch besser als erwartet, unter Crujeras Anleitung lernte ich viele mir noch unbekannte Techniken bzw. fand heraus auf welche Weise ich mir die bekannten Methoden verbessern und verfeinern kann, um das von mir gewünschte Resultat zu erzielen. Ich danke Alfonso und seiner Frau für die Gastfreundschaft und werde sicherlich oftmals an meine Reise nach Gran Canaria zurückdenken!
------------------------------------ English translation by Hannah Feurestain --------------------------------------
After learning traditional etching at University I started, with guidance of my etching tutor, to use electro-etching instead. I was thrilled by the results and the idea of the environmental sustainability this method entails. Since 2021 I have my own wee studio and printing press. I was very honored when I received the invitation to come to Gran Canaria – with the financial support Alfonso Crujera offers to young artists. My stay could not have been better, not only I learned a lot of new techniques and approaches to electro etching, but I also had the chance to improve upon my existing skill and deepen my knowledge. With Alfonso’s teaching I advanced way quicker than I would have done with my usual, self-taught trial and error approach.
I thank Alfonso and his wife for their hospitality and will think back to this travel often!
Hannah Feuerstein's electro-etchings
