Hi Everyone! If you read my last blog post two weeks ago, Solar Plate Printmaking, you would know that we started a new process printing on solar plates from a halftone image! If you missed it, go check it out to understand what’s happening here. I finally got to print a lot of versions of this plate and it came out so much cooler than I was expecting!

To start, I used a green/blue color ink on the plate because since it is a photograph of leaves and flowers I thought that fit the theme. I was extremely shocked with how well the first print came out and how much detail held up in the plate! After that, I experimented combining colors, using more of a yellow color in the middle and the same green on the outside, and it all kind of blended together to create a light green color. This print did not show up as well and I think it was because the ink was so light and the details were not shown as well as they were with the darker green. I think I ended up printing over these again with the darker green color and it came out better! Then I decided to just do a print with the black ink so it printed like a black and white image and I actually really liked it. Below are the first few prints I did, and the different color greens are the ones that I re-printed over!

After just experimenting with ink, we were introduced to another element we could implement into our prints, a process called “Chine-collé”. This is a printmaking technique where a thin sheet of paper, like tissue paper or Japanese rice paper, is glued onto a thicker backing paper during the printing process. The paper is placed on the inked plate, we apply adhesive or glue to the back of it facing up on the plate, and then run it through the press. When printed, the image on the plate transfers onto the thin paper while it bonds to the heavier paper underneath, creating subtle color, texture, or contrast in the final print. I decided to use some yellow tissue paper and cut out the shape of the flowers in the center and print it with black ink again. It came out amazing and I was shocked how well it worked! I need to experiment with some more tissue paper colors because this came out so cool!

Overall I really enjoyed this solar plate panel process of printmaking and I especially like the Chine-collé to add some depth and texture to the prints. I will be experimenting with some more!!

Thanks for reading,
Ella