Solar plate etching

The thing about solar plate etching is that the photocopying is so important.  Earlier in the year, when I did the course, I did the photocopying in the office. However when I looked at the acetate outside in the light, many of them were unusable, because the photocopier just wasn’t up to scratch.  This time I went to Officeworks. Mistake. You can’t do your own photocopying and you can’t stand over them to see if they have the right settings.

This was the first time I’d made solar plates at home by myself, so it was a bit scary. Luckily I read the instructions and got a clean piece of muslin out for if the plates stayed sticky in patches when I washed them.  Sure did – well two out of three. The bin at the top was less dark and it came out fine, but the others were not so good. However I like the wheels one, so I’ll make another plate of that one – do another acetate.

These were printed at the end of August and all that day we did viscosity printing, with stencils. The top one has had the centre part masked and a very light yellow colour roll, then a blend on a different roller. The ‘wheels’ has had all the background masked while the yellow roll was done. The bins at the bottom had the centre bin masked while a blue  colour roll was put on. This plate was made back in March and I’d previously inked it up a la poupee.

I was printing again on Sunday, and have the photocopying issue solved, and finding making the plates really easy. Decided I prefer to do a la poupee, even though it’s slower. All these images are from the Heritage Shipyard or ithe surrounding shipyards.