President’s Letter
I mentioned in an earlier letter that I would say something about non toxic waterless lithography.
Non toxic waterless lithography is a planographic printing method. How non toxic is it? And how waterless is it? The answer to the first question is “to some degree”. The answer to the second is “nearly”.
It is certainly less toxic than traditional stone lithography. Traditional lithography employed toxic substances like nitric acid which could burn your fingers down to the bone or blind you in no time. Waterless lithography uses silicone, odourless solvent and acetone. I wouldn’t like to swallow a spoonful of these but at least they don’t cause any noticeable immediate effect on skin. However, gloves should still be worn. Traditional lithography employed thick stones weighing many kilos which could break your back. Waterless lithography uses aluminium sheet about 0.1mm thick weighing a gram or two depending on your plate size.
It is waterless in the sense that silicone, rather than water, is used to repel ink in the areas where you don’t want ink to stick to the plate. The very great advantage of the method is that it is clean to use. Inking up the plate is done on a sheet of MDF or plywood or other material which is coated with silicone. As the roller comes off the plate the ink is repelled by the silicone on the base plate and picked up again by the roller so that there is no messy excess ink around to contend with.
In short, the method involves cleaning up an aluminium plate using water and “Jif” and then
(a) Drawing on the aluminium plate using, inter alia, Sharpie felt tipped pens (which can be bought at Officeworks) or Staedtler Omnicrom pencils.
(b) When the drawing is complete the plate is coated with a mix of silicone (gutter and roofing from Bunnings) and Art Spectrum odourless solvent( from Jacksons Drawing Supplies), buffed off using a roll of tissue (ie toilet paper) and then dried on a hotplate.
(c) When it is dry, acetone on tissue is wiped over the plate and it magically removes the image exposing bare aluminium where the lines were drawn.
(d) The roller is the loaded up with Vanson rubber based ink (which can be bought from MES) and the plate rolled up. The ink sticks to the exposed aluminium (where the drawing was) and is repelled by the silicone mix which remains elsewhere on the plate.
(e) The plate is then placed in an etching press and printed in the usual way. Voila! A print.
Actually, as simple as it sounds (and it is) a demonstration helps to master the technique. If enough interest is shown a demonstration day might be organised sometime in the future. Or you can go to Florence next year and learn from the masters, Annie Day and Robin Ezra. (see my previous letter in PrintNews.)
Until next time, happy printmaking.
Chris Pullin
President
