Printmaking @ The Sidney Nolan Trust
 

1. Solar plates print beautifully and can print any mark made on paper. This gives it a clear edge over traditional methods (e.g. aquatint, mezzotint, engraving, etching, stipple and even drypoint). Solar plate can not only create traditional intaglio and relief effects, but also many other effects not easy to achieve using traditional methods.
2. Solar plates are durable, capable of pulling far more prints than most fine art printmakers will want. (In the commercial printing industry photopolymer plates may run off a million or more copies.)
3. Solar plates give an attractive plate tone.
4. Solar plates avoid use of unhealthy chemicals and toxic materials used in traditional acid etching, e.g. nitric acid, rosin, ashphaltum and various solvents. Manufacturers state that the wash out water from solar plate making poses no danger to health or the environment.  See the health & safety page for more advice.
5. Unlike other photo processes used by printmakers (e.g. photo-etching), solar plate needs no darkroom.
6. No prior knowledge of plate-making processes is required. Virtual beginners can achieve much the same results as experienced printmakers. (NB But participants in the project must have experience of using the etching press safely and of inking relief and intaglio plates.)
7. Solar plate preparation is quicker than many traditional methods, notably etching.
8. Very little additional equipment is needed and this can be easily constructed at home, e.g. a contact frame.
9. Printmakers using solar plate are in the vanguard of a new fine art printmaking technique that is likely to become as established a method as woodcut or copper plate etching.
10. Solar plate can be used to transfer text, photographs and other images on to archival paper. The hand-printed image has an intangible allure. Ink sits on the paper surface in a way that is totally different from laser prints or photocopies.