Solar Plate Etching

The elaborate decoration of armour in germany at least was an art probably imported from italy around the end of the 15th century little earlier than the birth of etching as a printmaking.

Solar plate etching.

Unfortunately it is not a very environmentally friendly technique as it involves sheets of metal usually made of copper or zinc and acid used to etch the print onto the metal. Solarplate is a prepared light sensitive polymer surface on a steel backing for artists to produce fine prints. Plates should be handled carefully so as not to damage the plate surface. Solar plates are a simple safe and fast approach to etching and relief printing that does not use grounds acids or solvents.

Solarplates are carefully packaged with interleaf papers and placed in a corrugated box. As a consequence of this the unexposed plate surface is soft and can be damaged during plate handling or from foreign matter on the film. Solarplate is a light sensitized steel backed polymer material used by artists as an alternative to hazardous printing techniques. An eco friendly alternative to traditional etching traditional etching is a printmaking process that dates back 500 years.

Printmaking with solarplate is a simple approach and safer alternative to traditional etching and relief printing. Solar plate etching is a prepared light sensitive polymer surface on a steel backed plate used to produce fine photographic reproductions with great detail. Etching by goldsmiths and other metal workers in order to decorate metal items such as guns armour cups and plates has been known in europe since the middle ages at least and may go back to antiquity.