The engraving before the colour
Copper yields linework that lithography cannot match; six weeks at the burin, a single plate.
Amber wash by measured hand
Three parts gamboge, one part burnt sienna, laid over the dry engraving in a single pass.
Comb geometry from life, not geometry
Every cell measured from a cast taken in June; the bee builds to nine degrees, never ten.
Paper that remembers the press
Manila sheet, damped overnight, foxed by time; a plate is not complete until the paper ages into it.