Yes, water-based inks work, but in that case you have to use a block made of something slightly absorbent that will hold the ink. In Japan, cherry wood was traditional (very expensive today), but any good wood will do. Surely there are other things that would be suitable, but metal plates (copper, brass, aluminum and zinc, among others can be used with oil-based inks), rubber, linoleum, etc. don't work with water-based inks. In my own work, I use combinations of wood and cardboard as the "plates" but use oil-based inks because the cardboard holds up better that way.
Still interested to hear if anyone knows what kind of tonal range the oven cleaner method allows. Also interested in ongoing reports on the UV-sensitive resin emulsion developed in water that someone mentioned. I suspect these both require screens to get any kind of tonal range. Given the already highly contrasty nature of pinhole negtives in many cases, I wonder if this approach would yield good results very often, but who knows? For what it's worth, all the oil-based stuff can be done using relatively benign fuel oil (Japanese toyu--Ed help me if this is the wrong translation) as the solvent. It's not very volatile nor is it as carcinogenic as the stuff people often use (often benzene-rich). I'm very sensitive to solvents as well and this stuff is OK for me. The process is time-consuming, however. You either have the temperament for it or you don't. It can be tedious and messy--you're definitely right about that. Colin --- Gregory Parkinson <g...@panix.com> wrote: > I love printing off of photo plates, but what I > couldn't > get into the was the prep and cleanup time for each > print. Inking the plate - and then cleaning it for > the > next print - was a time-consuming and messy job that > involved the use of lots of solvents. I didn't like > breathing > that stuff for so long. > > Can you use water-based inks for this process? > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email alerts & NEW webcam video instant messaging with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com
