Solarplate workshop, Saturday, 1-25-2014

I wanted to share some photos I took of work created during the Solarplate workshop I taught at The Drawing Studio on January 25th. It was difficult to get photos of everything since I was teaching, but at least you get a taste of what the students created and learned.

It was a great day, cloudy and quiet early in the morning and sunnier in the afternoon. Dillinger Days was starting off the weekend on Congress Street, so when I arrived early for class, I took some photos of the classic cars lining the street, right outside the print lab's back door. The cars proved to be good drawing subjects later in the day.

I taught three different methods of getting an image on a plate during this one-day workshop: using photographic images, including sketchbook drawings, transferred onto film using a copy machine; drawing on acetate with Stabilo pencils or ink; and relief plates created using plates coated with ink and drawing directly on the plates outside. Tom Lindell, one of the regular printmaking instructors at The Drawing Studio print lab, assisted me. 

One student even did an very successful experiment creating a plate using dry, pressed flowers she found in her sketch book. I managed to get photos of each stage of making the plate. 

Dried plants on the plate, ready for the UV light box. 

Developed plate

Inked, on the press and ready to print. 

The first print!

A ghost print was pulled from the plate. 

A relief print created outside. Recognize the cars? 

An image from a student's sketchbook used to create this plate.

Another sketchbook drawing tuned into a beautiful little print.

One student tried all three methods.

One of my demo plates.

The class was really fun and it gave students a taste of what can be achieved with Solarplates. At least one of the students will be coming back to the print lab to become a weekly regular, so look for more student work soon!

Next up; the workshop from February 1st- ImageOn film!

Cheers,

~Rebecca