Gravure Issues
Dear Susan, No no no no............I am not discouraged. Having trained as an apprenticed hand engraver on metals for seven years back in the sixties I am not short of patience when it comes to obtaining desired results from a printing process. I am a pictorialist and aim to make impressionist camera generated images in multiples. Gravure reproduction very much appeals to me especially when the working of the technique allows a certain ammount of manipulation with regard to contrast of the final image. However, as I am not a very wealthy man I need to find ways of reducing the very high costs of equipment such as roller press, gravure plates, etc., etc., This is my personal project which I hope can be shared with several other members of this List (six hundred + strong) who must be drooling at the pristine images appearing on the web sites you are highlighting, Altho' I admire the enormous ammount of technical effort which obviously has been used to produce these images and the subjects are incredibly beautiful , this is not my genre of artistic creativity, and I do not aim to emulate. There is room for all tastes. This has often been stated on this list. The similarity of Gravure to other photo transfer processes such as Oil Printing, Bromoil, Photo Lithography, Screen is what is so attractive to me and I thank you for bringing so much enthusiasm to the current scene regarding the process. Press on with the challenge. Best. John - Photographist - London - UK Original Message ----- From: "SusanV" <susanvoss3@gmail.com> To: <alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca> Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2007 4:46 PM Subject: Re: Plate Cutter/Draw Tool John, No no no don't be discouraged about the polymer plates :o) This is just a minor problem for me personally since I don't have a good old quillotine paper cutter, which apparently works great. I'm going to pick up a used on on ebay I think, then I'll be good to go. The plate's surface is a bit tacky and is covered with a clear acetate sheet for protection. You remove that after cutting and just before exposure. The edge of that acetate can lift up a bit though, and if there are little steel shavings along the edge... they can get under there. I think maybe there ARE some with a plastic base, but I believe from what I've read recently that these Printight KM73 plates are the very best for detail and smooth tone. Stick around and we'll all get this figured out for you :o) In the meantime be sure to go look at the links on my blog... Jon and Keith know what they're doing. I've seen Keith's work in person, and it's gorgeous. Susan On 3/15/07, John Grocott <john.grocott403@ntlworld.com> wrote: Hi Susan, As I am not acquainted with polymer plates such as the steel ones -- susan gravure blog at www.susanvossgravures.blogspot.com website www.dalyvoss.com
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