U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | RE: Gravure Pigment Tissue was Fwd: RE: Klaus Pollmeier

RE: Gravure Pigment Tissue was Fwd: RE: Klaus Pollmeier



Thanks Jalo, that's good news for people fearing the loss of Autotype tissue
then...

I personally would go for polymer route in a snap (I did some feasibility
research few months ago); the supply chain of polymer plates isn't
endangered (still extensively used by the printing/press industry), the
plates are pretty consistent (AFAIK, unlike the tissue and the elaborate /
complex etching steps) and it's a very user/environment friendly process
when compared to the classic method.

Although I don't feel completely convinced about "hand-workability similar
to copper plate", I will definitely take your word on this issue.

Q: What is the theoretical smallest stochastic dot size you can get with
polymer gravure?

Regards,
Loris.


-----Original Message-----
From: Vedos [mailto:vedos@samk.fi] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 10:51 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: RE: Gravure Pigment Tissue was Fwd: RE: Klaus Pollmeier

Hi Loris,
I have made only a few polymer gravures myself, but have seen many wonderful
pieces made by some printmakers and students. I'd say you really have a lot
of choices in polymer gravure, starting from the plate material (toyobo,
solarplate, imagon) and ending to aquatint or other screens used and how the
plate is processed, inked and printed. And you can introduce hand work to
the plate at many stages of the work, e.g. drypoint is easy, and even
mezzotint (though may look a bit different from copper). Almost anything
belonging to intaglio type printmaking can be done with polymer too.

Polymer print runs can be longer than with copper, if the polymer is
properly hardened. And, again if properly made with top quality aquatint
screens, in practice the polymer print *is* continuous tone, because the
idea is to get the aquatint dots to disappear (more or less) by the ink dot
gain. By comparing tones and details a polymer gravure can be very hard to
distinguish from a copper gravure, if you are not an expert.

- Jalo

V E D O S
Alternative Processes in Photography & Printmaking Satakunta University of
Applied Sciences Faculty of Business and Culture Kankaanpää Paasikivenkatu
24, Box 76
FI-38701 Kankaanpää
vedos@samk.fi
http://vedos.samk.fi
http://www.samk.fi

________________________________________
From: Loris Medici [mail@loris.medici.name]
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 8:55 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: RE: Gravure Pigment Tissue  was Fwd: RE: Klaus Pollmeier

Yes, I was about mentioning it... It's not the end, you can still make use
of your equipment.

BUT, photopolymer gravure and copper plate gravure are different in my
understanding:

- With the classic method, you have a malleable / hand workable plate in
case you want to introduce hand work.
- Steel faced copper plates can give you longer print runs. (?)
- You have more plate choices; copper, zinc or steel... Each will give
different / intrinsic results.
- You can get more detail and tones (almost continuous tone) from the
classic method. (?)

-  ... What else according to you all? (And please correct me where I'm
wrong.)

I'm not strictly sure about the lines marked with (?)...

Regards,
Loris.

________________________________

From: ender100 [mailto:ender100@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 6:14 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@usask.ca
Subject: Re: Gravure Pigment Tissue was Fwd: RE: Klaus Pollmeier


Marty,
If all else fails, you might try Polymer Plate Photogravure.