Course Spotlight - Solar Plate Printmaking

On Saturday we ran our day course in Solar Plate Printmaking with Kathryn Desforges Artist / Printmaker. It was a brilliant day - a full course with 6 lovely participants who made some really beautiful prints.

Solar plates are also known as photopolymer plates, and are composed of a layer of light-sensitive polymer on a thin steel backing. The plates are exposed to UV light through a positive image printed or drawn by hand in black on transparent media, (our new UV exposure unit made light work of this!). The plates are then developed using water, and printed in the same way as an etching. They can also be used as relief plates and printed like a linocut. This versatility means that solar plates can also be used in conjunction with many other printmaking processes.

We started off in the morning with a demonstration of exposing, developing and printing a plate. Then in the afternoon participants made and printed their own plates, with plenty of time for experimenting.

If you're interested in the technique, check out our Photo-Plate Lithography course http://www.wypw.org/sh…/draft-photo-plate-lithography-april/ coming up in April. Photo plate lithography uses light-sensitive plates onto which hand-drawn or photographic images can be exposed, which are then inked up like a lithograph and printed on an etching press.

These lovely Solar plate prints where created by one of our workshop participants Victoria Anning.

For more information visit http://www.wypw.org/