Friday, April 27, 2012

Poly-Litho For Dummies


You start by setting everything out, all your paper, your poly-litho plate, a sponge, bowl of water, ink, roller, and gloves.

Then you warm up the ink and roll it out in a square.


Then you sponge out some water on the glass plate and lay the litho plate over top while you cover it in even more water. Water is your best friend in this process. If your plate is dry the ink will stick to places that it shouldn't and really the only bad thing about too much water is having it overflow onto your shoes.


When you roll the ink out over the plate it only sticks to your water-resistant image, so everywhere that is wet won't have ink on it. If you look at your image from the side you can see where the ink is sticking.


Then you pull the plate up to drip the excess water off and place it on the press, putting your paper over top of your plate in order to transfer the image.


Run it through the press and then, presto:


Congratulations! You have just created your first print! Be excited! The rest is like shampoo, rinse and repeat.


(the entirety of my prints created today)


(the best four)


(the best one)