The engraving is accomplished by making incisions directly into a metal plate with a hand-held tool called a burin, the artist’s strokes being made at different depths and distances and with different slants, allowing him to bring out the highlights and the objects to be represented.

 

Hand engraving on metal is done without the intervention of acids, waxes or varnishes.

 

The subsequent stage is the printing.  The metal plate is inked, the excess duly wiped off with a tarlatan cloth (the appropriate fabric), and the intaglio impression is pulled in the traditional handcrafted way on the manually-operated screw press.