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Solar plate

I finished my through the keyhole image of Lady Penelope infront of her steamer trunk undressing. Today I took the image to be transfered to an acetate sheet(I tried at home, but as I only have an inkjet, all I ended up with was black blobby liquid) ready to prepare my solar plate.

This method of printing is completely non-toxic and uses just water to clean-up the plate after exposure. Both intaglio and relief matrixes can be formed using simple UV exposure techniques. I will be making intaglio solarplates for this project.

After opening my plate from the UV protected bag, I placed it emulsion up on a small board to receive a halftone screen. The screen was placed on the emulsion side, then a glass sheet was clamped onto the glass and board. The plate was then exposed to UV light for 21/2 minutes.

Then I removed the screen, added my acetate positive then exposed the plate in the same manner for 31/2 minutes.

At this point the plate is ready to be submerged in water to take the photosensitive layer off. The plate then needs to be exposed to sunlight to harden sufficiently to print from. I am at this hardening point and intend to put my plates out in the sun tomorrow morning to harden.

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