Soft ground comes in ball ground form and is applied to the plate in the same manner as the ball hard ground. Heat your plate and apply small amount of ground. Using soft ground roller spread a thin uniform coating of the ground over the entire plate. If the plate gets too hot the ground will bubble up and leave small holes that will etch when placed in the acid. Allow the plate to cool slightly and re-roll the ground.

Place your materials to be pressed onto the plate and run through press as if printing. Place wax paper over top of plate, before laying blankets so that ground does not stick to newsprint or blankets.

Now run the plate through the press as if printing, or with slightly less pressure if using many thick objects. (USE YOUR JUDGEMENT) You need some pressure, but too much means items may stick too well to the plate and ground.

After removing plate take off materials to see if they allow you to see any of the metal if the plate. If items stick use a needle to gently remove them without scraping the plate. Practice will tell you how much pressure and if enough ground was removed to allow for acid to etch the plate.

Now etch the plate to achieve the desired level of gray in your texture.