Solarplate relief printing
Solarplate (light sensitive emulsion—photopolymer) was developed for use by artists in 1972 by Dan Welden, a  Master
printmaker from New York. During this time, solarplate has gone through a number of changes and we now have a product that is superior to previous formulations. ‘Solarplate copper’

Creating the Art Work on the Plate
Solarplate works on the principle of your “drawing” stopping UV light from hitting the surface of your plate and hardening it. Your “drawing” may be on any translucent medium such as plastic, mylar, OHP sheet, film, glass, acetate or tracing paper. The “drawing” can be done in many mediums such as crayon, conte, permanent felt tip pen, black drawing ink, tusche, paint and with many tools such as scrapers, squeegees or anything that will move the medium on your
transparency. You can also use photographs and computer images transferred onto OHP and of course any
combination of all of the above!

For relief printing, a negative image of your “drawing” is required in order to get a positive print. If you want the positive black and white print, you need to scan the “drawing” into your computer and invert it. This prints out a negative on transparency film that you can expose on your solarplate. (make sure you use transparency film suitable for your printer)

Exposing the Art Work on the Plate
Always carry the plate by the edges, even finger prints will expose! Select the piece of solarplate, remove it from the black plastic wrapper, remove the paper coversheet, place the plate on a board and lay the transparency on top of the plate with the emulsion side down. Lay a piece of clean picture glass on top of that and clamp the edges with bull dog clips. Cover the light sensitive material with black paper while taking it to the sun. Take the board out to the sun and hold it at right angles to the sun, exposing it for 2 minutes. Generally in New Zealand , a good sunny day will provide enough UV.

Preparing the Plate
Back inside, place the plate into a flat dish. Wear rubber gloves as the solution is slightly caustic. Pour some warm water over the plate to cover the whole surface. Gently scrub across the surface of the plate with a body wash brush, shoe brush or soft nail brush. Even a paint brush will do the job. Use circular motion across the
surface for about 2 minutes. The rose tinted washout should have occurred by now and you should be able to see a clear definition of your image. The washout should go down to the metal backing which is bright yellow. Hold the plate to drip dry, place the plate onto newsprint and lay a piece of newsprint over the plate to dry it off. If there are signs of pink jelly lifting off, then you need a bit more washing out. When the plate is washed out and dry, lay it back in the sun for 15 minutes to harden the whole plate in preparation for printing. Dan always files the corners of his plate to save any accidents.

Drawing                 Transparency negative   2 minutes sunlight        wash out in water              finished print    
              2 minutes  10 minutes sunlight 

Printing your Solarplate
To ink up the plate with waterbased or oil based ink use a hard roller. The ink needs to be rolled out on a sheet of glass to create a fine, even film, then using a pick up and roll method, apply the ink to the plate. The more skilful your inking, the better the result.
Lay smooth paper onto the plate and apply medium pressure using your  A4 Homeprint Relief press,
A3 yellowXpress 2000 or A3 yellowXpress 5000. Dampened art paper for oil based ink on your etching press or the
yellowXpress press will also give you excellent results.
 
Good image making,
John Brebner,
Homeprint,
11 Sandilands Street, Feilding.   0274 506826

www.homeprint.co.nz             email   homeprint@xtra.co.nz