How Do You Make A Lithograph Plate?
You can make artistic lithographic plates at home, but doing so isn’t for the faint of heart. You will spend both time and money following the simple process described below. However, you will have the pleasure of creating and printing your art using a plate you made. From beginning to end, the entire creative process will depend on your skill and talent. If you are using stone, slide a metal ruler or level over the stone’s surface. If you find any unevenness, or if someone has used the stone before, use the graining stone and gently grind away any uneven high spots or the old image. If you are using metal plates, create “tooth” on the slick, flat plates on a graining machine using aluminum oxide powder and small metal balls to grind the oxide into the plate’s surface. “Tooth” helps the plate hold ink during the printing process. Wash and dry metal plates to prevent oxidation; do the same for stone plates to remove any small flecks of ground stone that remain on the stone’s surface. Th
