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A curved serrated tool, called a rocker is used to engrave a ground into a copper plate. This engraves a fine line of dots as well as a burr of copper around the dots into the plate. The whole plate is covered, so an even uniform texture is created. The depth of dots and height of the burr hold the ink, producing a rich velvet black tone. Rocking this plate to produce the ground took 12 hours work. Then using a variety of scrapers and burnishers the image is selectively scraped and burnished back, working from light to dark so that a tonal design is produced. The deeper the indented areas remain the darker it will print. Where the plate is polished smooth no ink will adhere and so will appear as highlights. The finished plate is then inked and printed by the artist on an etching press.