Talas || Professional Archival, Bookbinding, Conservation and Restoration Supplies. Solar Plate making & PMC - Silverclay Art. SilverClay Art - Photopolymer plates tutorial. Drawing If you have the ability to draw, use pen & ink for your designs. Strong black & white is required, this is known as 'line art' in the printing industry. You can also draw in pencil and have the resulting drawing photocopied to make a high contrast drawing. Computer: If you are proficient on the computer, using a graphics program, you could scan a drawing and convert to a high contrast drawing.
Or if you want to do the complete artwork in a drawing program like Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw, make sure the line width you use is no thinner than 1 pt (= 0.5mm - 0.02") or 2 pt (= 1 mm - 0.04")for deeper impressions. All these methods are indirect; they have to be transferred to an overhead transparency (OH) before they can be used to make a plate. You can do this by printing your design onto OH Transparency material using a laser printer through your computer, or get a copy centre to make a laser copy for you.
Three Red Hens: Letterpress & Design. Briar Press | A letterpress community. Lazer printing onto Lettra or other letterpress type paper - Ladies of Letterpress. The Bieler Press. Discussion.