Here are a few images from the Photopolymer and Solar Plates Workshop which tool place on Friday 7th, Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th October. There were some stunning images produced, which show the subtlety of marks you can obtain using these processes. We will be holding another 'Introduction to Photo-Etching' 1-day course in February 2012. Visit the courses page on our website for more details: http://www.wypw.org/courses.html

A print taken directly from the photopolymer film
- very rich tones of black can be obtained using this technique



A solar plate relief printing block made by exposing
 a photograph printed onto transparent film onto the
plate using a UV light source, then developing it in water.



A print taken from the above block

 A print from an etched zinc plate - the photopolymer
film acts as an acid-resist during the etching process

 

Very pure colours can be obtained using these
processes as the polymer surface does not react with the ink
as some metals do.



An image drawn onto grained glass is then exposed onto a solar plate with
UV light - creating almost lithographic-quality prints

A print created from the above drawing using a solar plate



Developing the solar plate in water. The plate is gently
rubbed with a paintbrush to remove areas of polymer which
have not been hardened by the UV light



A print from a solar plate made using a photograph
containing very subtle tones - much of the intricate detail
in an image is retained using this process

Test plates

A print taken from an metal plate etched using photopolymer
film as an acid-resist.