Printing In The Sun

I just got the book Printmaking in the Sun, by Dan Welden and Pauline Muir out from the library via interlibrary loan. It describes the process of using photopolymer plates for printmaking. Basically you create a transparency with your artwork, and then expose the plate under the transparency to the UV light in sunlight. Where the transparency is clear, the UV light hardens the plate material. The non-hardened areas are soluble in water, so you wash the plate to create the printing surface.

It’s an intriguing technique, and we may have to try it out. One can do both relief and intaglio printing through it, though the former is simpler, and could be done with not much more equipment than we have at home. It’s still pretty involved, though — I guess you just start small, and see where it takes you.