Traditional lithographs have probably been printed on an etching press for a long time, as Senefelder use one until the wooden roller cracked and he found that a scrapping action could work just as well. Since most printmaking seems to be done by intaglio processes, litho presses are less common; but with the ease of […]
To make rolling up the plates a cleaner operation, I developed a subplate that is placed on a table near the press and ink slab, unto which one places the plate. The subplate is simply a smooth surface that has silicone applied so it rejects ink as well as the plate. Since it is best […]
A good lithographic printer probably can make most traditional oil based inks available to them work in this process, but some new inks can make printing much easier. Hand printing with waterless plates requires ink with a good amount of tack, but traditional printers normally want less tack, so ink makers keep it low. Greasy […]
Silicones are organic polymers, molecules that consists of mainly of silicon and oxygen, which can be modified to produce a great number of wonderful products used by us daily. As printers we are only interested in the common caulking silicones that are used in the construction industry as sealers and adhesives. Even these come in […]
While I have time, I decided to add more information to this project. To understand waterless and its difference with traditional lithography, it doesn’t rely as much on chemistry as Senefelders original process did. Waterless is simply a delicate masking system to keep silicone from bonding to the plate. Any material that adheres well and […]
Practically any type of aluminium sheeting can be used for waterless lithography, but I presume most will be using those commonly used by printmakers coming in .012 inch thickness and grained on one side. After using the grained side, the plate can be recycled by cleaning the back and preparing it for taking on an […]
In 1990 I developed a usable process by which common caulking silicone can be used to make waterless litho plates and have made the process available to any printer interested in learning more about it. It has been published in the international refereed journal Leonardo, as well as Printmaking Today and on various websites on […]
Over the weekend some students from the university paid me a visit to talk about printmaking. During the afternoon we got talking about their use of the copper sulfate mordant for etching aluminium. One of them had encountered some articles about it on the Internet and the fact many there think it was developed in […]