Last night Kae Shigemura came again from Japan to spend some time with my wife and I to learn a bit more about waterless lithography.  She was here for ten days a couple years ago, after finding my website and contacting me. She had studied waterless lithography in Boston but had never heard of my university website and was surprised about the information on it.

She was intrigued with the possibility of making her own positive plates when she watched me coat recycled aluminium and has been experimenting on her own back in Kyoto.  Over the last year, I have been trying to find a simpler method of making positive plates and have found a friend in Jerry Larson, who at 3M had been heavily involved in their waterless plate development back in 1960’s.  As director of R&D, this Phd chemist understands the problem much better than I, so his suggestions are taken to heart.

With Kae here interested in getting better plate results, I think some of Jerrys’ suggestions will be put to use to see if we can produce an easier process than mine.  She will also be working with Jacob Semko, one of my better students who has his masters in printmaking.  His is a well equipped print studio with large litho and intaglio presses that he built.  What results we might have in the month Kae will be here is still unknown, but certainly will be exciting to have young trained dedicated printmakers around me at my age.  This visit should be a shot in the arm as I have not been doing much editioning the last year, being involved with other interesting activities.
I will keep you informed

Posted by Nik Semenoff on October 19th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
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