RE: Polymer Plate 80% screen Weirdness Solved!

Nothing new with these plates. They're made in Japan by Toyobo (sp?),
stocked in the USA by Anderson-Vreeland and have been the darlings of
the photopolymer intaglio resurgence. When I lived in Dallas, I used
to drive over to the warehouse to pick these up.

http://www.andersonvreeland.com

I also suggest looking at the Miraclon MS152 product sold by Gene
Becker in NY state. Both these products will hold a fine dot.

http://www.photopolymerplates.com/photopoly.htm

As to these having the "quality" of no plate tone, I'd submit that
quality is relative to the experience of the user. Wiping plates is
one of the skills we acquire when using ink on any plates. Your
mileage may vary...

Darryl

-----Original Message-----
From: Jon Lybrook [mailto:jon@terabear.com]
Sent: Tue 2/17/2004 2:29 AM
To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
Subject: Polymer Plate 80% screen Weirdness Solved!
 
Generic Baby Powder did the trick. No more Newton Rings.

As Jan suggested, I covered the plate reasonably well, then dumped it
off
into the sink, tapping the edge a few times to remove most of the
powder.
I then used a wide hake brush to dust it off, front and back until
clean
before carrying the plate into the studio to expose to the screen,
then to
the image.

Thanks again for all the insight and kind encouragement.

Incidentally, I'm trying out some relatively new (?) plates from Box
Car
Press. They are supposed to have no plate tone (that is, residual ink
left in areas that don't have tone in the original image). The
instructor
at the Denver Art Student's League where I'm taking a class said they
were
worth a try, so I'm trying them! Box Car calls them "EcoEtch gravure
plates for photogravure", Printight model number KM 73. Has anyone
else
used these?

http://www.boxcarpress.com/cgi-local/shop.pl/page=polymer.htm

Jon