Niamh works primarily in the medium of etching, making each print from copper plates. She makes multi-plate colour etchings which are printed by hand at her studio in small editions.

She covers a copper plate with a wax ground, and then draws her image into the wax using a steel point. This exposes the copper plate in the areas which are drawn. She puts this plate into a bath of acid, where the acid corrodes or eats away at the marks she has made. When the line is deep enough she cleans it off, and the copper plate now has lines and marks under the surface which will hold ink. She makes several plates for the different colours, and when they are all finished she applies ink to the plates and wipes it carefully from the surface. Ink remains below the surface where the plates have made contact with the acid. It is then printed by hand onto paper using an etching press. The plates are worked on through several stages of mark-making in the acid, taking proofs, or trial prints at each stage. When the plates are ready, she mixes colours and begins to edition the prints. Each hand-inked plate is printed on an etching press to transfer the image onto paper, resulting in the finished piece. To print the edition, Niamh must ink and wipe the plates every time to pull a print.

Copper plate with etched line, inked up for printing

Copper plate with tonal etched areas, inked up for printing.

Niamh at the printing press in her studio with finished print - Winter at the lake