Screen Sources and KM73 processing
I'll try looking into other sources for the 1800 dpi screens today. Harold Kyle, the owner of Box Car press may have some vendors he can recommend. I tried deviating from my procedure this week and processed a KM73 plate in hot water (100 degrees), as that's what the manufacturer recommends, but for the same amount of scrub time (35 seconds - typically I don't measure the temperature of the water and take it however it comes from the tap). The results were the plate was softer and stickier when I went to blot it, and stuck to the newsprint. Luckily I was able to remove most of it, but generally a plate that sticky is not a good thing. Haven't printed it yet, but I hope to next week. Clearly the temp makes a big difference. Could be someone developing their own procedure might use consistently measured, hot water, scrub longer and expose longer too perhaps...I'll probably go back to my same old way of doing things, but with the knowledge that consistent temp, even at the lower temps I work under, would most likely make something of a difference (Duh). For anyone curious, here are some examples of good results I've gotten using the 1800 dpi stochastic screen and the KM73 polymer plates using traditional looking photographs, as opposed to the a la poupee of chemigrams I generally do. Like the third one "Tree on 287" I'll see if I can find an example of two of something with continuous tone so you can see that it's possible to do this process without getting those blotches from lack of adequate contact. Again, the larger one goes with the plate, the more surface there is, so the more at risk of contact issues there is. The plates shown in these images were about 5x7", but all the images were taken to 13x19ish, eventually, without issue. http://terrabear.com/tour1.01.htm http://terrabear.com/tour1.03.htm http://terrabear.com/tree_on_287-lg.jpg More later. Thanks! Jon |
