U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: polymer gravure idea

Re: polymer gravure idea



Hi Nancy,

At a school in Florence where I assisted a printmaking workshop last summer, they used corn oil to clean their poly plates.  Seems to work, and was affordable, but I'd be concerned about residual gunk building up with poly or any kind of plate. 

I got my cleaning technique from Don Messec who recommends using a gloved hand to massage Soy Solv II solvent into the plate after use, then running it through the press 2x onto clean newsprint, then doing the same thing with a little fresh mineral spirits to get up the last of the ink.

I agree with your assertion about the differences in plates.  Toyobo have a smoother, finer, more photographic quality about them, while Solarplate are better for more graphical work.

Jon

Nancy Diessner wrote:
Susan,
Nancy, again.
As far as filling in low areas--YES, you're right. I've used Speedball Screen Filler and have liked the effect, though it doesn't print the same each time, but that isn't a concern for me in my work.

Also--I use baby oil to clean these plates. It's slow, but if you massage it into the plate and let it sit, then it will free up a good amount of the ink. I use veggie oil on copper plates, but for some reason I was always told not to use it on polymer plates. I don't know why.... Does anyone have any experience with this out there?

I'm new to this list, so I'm not sure if there's already been a discussion about the differences in image quality between solarplates and
Toyobo Printight plates, but everything that's being said about solarplates sounds very similar to my experience working with the Printight plates. I had always thought solarplates were cruder than Printight plates...has anyone compared them?

Nancy
Nancy W. Diessner
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
Chester College of New England
40 Chester St.
Chester, NH 03036
  


SusanV wrote:
HI Everyone, and thanks for the replies about not having to wait 24
hours.  That made me happy, BUT then I tracked my OHP delivery online,
and Fedex changed their mind about when they'd deliver it, even though
it's on their truck not 20 miles from here... I won't get it till
Wednesday.  sheesh.  ;)

Nancy... maybe you could try using a filler of some kind squeegeed
over the low area, then polished.  I dunno, but maybe some epoxy?  Or
Liquitex modeling paste?  That's great to hear that the plates are
"workable" to some degree.

Jon.. Regarding transporting the plate... my press is about 10 feet
from my Nuark :o))  Regarding the liquitex... i have plenty of that
and lots of experience printing collagraphs using it.  One of the best
and most safe cleaners for oil based inks and paints is cooking oil!
I buy a gallon of it and it goes a long way.  It doesn't harm the
liquitex either.  Sometimes you might have to use a little mineral
spirits at the very end, but not usually much.

OOOOOOOO while I was writing this my aquatint screen was delivered!
OK, I'm going to go
print something... I think I have some Staples brand transparencies somewhere...

Susan