Hades

This weekend I attended the photopolymer workshop, although I missed the Saturday class due to being ill.
However, I still managed to get plenty out of workshop on Sunday and enjoyed this printmaking technique, although it would be something I’d like to perfect at home, where I would have the materials and equipment all to myself!
So what does photopolymer printmaking entail? The plate is made of thin steel, one side of which is coated in a photosensitive polymer, which ultra violet light hardens. A dot screen is placed over the plate and exposed to sunlight (or, in the case of Southern Highland fickle summers, a UV light box) for a period of 1 minute (4 minutes if cloudy, 6 in the lightbox). The plate is then brought inside and an image that has been made on transparent or translucent film is placed over the plate and taken outside/to the light box for the same amount of time. The next step is to scrub the plate so that the areas that haven’t been affected by light are removed. Rinse, dry and cure the plate under light for approximately 15 minutes, after which time it is ready to be inked and printed.

My Sister’s Window

The long and threefold beast

Tiger – from a photograph I took at Taronga Zoo