[Leica] Re: plate printing

["Tim Spragens" <t.spragens@cityweb.de>]

> From: Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com>
> 
> One of my models from the 80's is now a photographer and prints on
> copper plates she tells me last week. What the heck is that all about?
> I didn't have time to ask her. Mark Rabiner

My Ex was the printmaker, and I tagged along in the studios often. 
She worked with silkscreen, but I did see some of the other 
processes as well. You need a copper plate as large as the final 
print, and a film of equal size. Coat the copper with a photoresist, 
process, then acid etch the plate. Depending on the inking method, 
you can print the positive or negative space. I've never even seen 
the process through from beginning to end, just know a bit of the 
theory,  I have been thinking about reading up, then trying my hand 
at it. It may be possible to use not a thick copper plate, but one of 
those printed circuit board blanks with a thin copper coating and 
fiberglass/epoxy below. Worth some experimenting, if I can find a 
few buckets of time.

If your former model was printing on copper, rather than with it, that 
would be something different entirely.

Thinking of experimentation, here's a tale of making non-
photographic prints from the Bad Old Sov days, related to my by 
an expatriated poet about a friend of his, a print maker by the name 
of Chemiankin. Materials for unapproved artists were hard to come 
by, so he had to improvise. He experimented with floor tiling until 
he found a Finnish one that he could cut and would handle ink in a 
way he wanted. Moral - use whatever works for you!

Er, what *is* the moon phase anyway? 


- --
Tim Spragens
http://www.borderless-photos.com