'SOLAR LINES' Photo Etching with the Sun. Jan 21, 22, 2011 with Jennifer Page more info here

Photogravure Workshops with Unai San Martin & Jennifer Page
The next Workshop is scheduled for Feb 20-24, 2012 at Cape Fear and another in the Bay area of CA for April 17-21. Class runs from 10 am - 5pm each day with a 40 minute lunch break. If you are interested in upcoming workshops then e-mail me and I will put you on an early notification list. Class fee is $950, all materials included except paper and copper, $400 deposit required for a reservation.

View the recent October Workshop Prints here

Photogravure, an intaglio process developed between 1850 and 1880, was one of the first successful techniques used to edition photographic images. Its tonal and archival qualities are so superb that even after the arrival of more commercially viable processes in the early 20th century, photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Curtis, and Paul Strand used it to edition some of their most important works. Fine art presses and book publishers still use the process today.

Unai San Martin has won several prestigious awards for his evocative and subtle photogravures, including the Joan Miro and Sotheby's first prize, and the first prize in the National Printmaking Competition in Madrid. His work is in more than 20 museums and collections in Europe and the United States, such as the Santa Barbara Musum of Art and the di Rosa Collection. He has taught workshops on the photogravure process both locally and in Europe and has made gravures for almost 20 years. 

Jennifer Page, the owner of Cape Fear Press, was the first artist to test the new Phoenix Gravure tissue for fine art photogravure. She has thoroughly tested the tissue over the last year etching almost 100 gravure plates with it thus far. Jennifer has developed some technical innovations of her own to deal with the variables and common problems encountered with gravure.

In this intensive 5 day workshop students will learn digital image preparation from scanned film or file with Photoshop on a Mac, making positives on a high resolution inkjet printer, direct gravure (drawings on frosted mylar), all aspects of tissue processing, exposure calibration, using aquatint screens and Picco dustgrain for box aquatints, etching, plate retouching techniques, printing and wiping techniques, ink modifications, tips for editioning, chine colle as well as a brief intro to steel facing the copper plate for durability. Prior knowledge of etching, photography and/or Photoshop is very helpful but not necessary. Enrollment is limited to 4 participants and each participant will etch 2 plates approx. 8x10" during the week pulling several prints. We will use a dustgrain aquatint for one plate and an aquatint screen for the next.

Come spend a week at the beach and learn the latest developments and techniques in a time tested medium that refuses to die!

Info for accommodations.
Book flights into ILM, Wilmington International Airport. The airport is about 20 miles from here.
http://unaisanmartin.net/

HOST A PHOTOGRAVURE WORKSHOP AT YOUR ETCHING STUDIO
We are interested in traveling for workshops

Minimum requirements needed for a copper gravure workshop:
Macintosh computer with Photoshop
Epson printer with 6 or more ink colors
HEAVY DUTY etching press
UV exposure unit with a vacuum and single point light, not tubes
A stomp shear or guillotine is a plus but plates can be trimmed later if you do not have one in house

Please contact us for rates and expenses and let us know how many students your space can accommodate.

NEW PRODUCTS:

Agate Burnishers
Agate Burnishers are commonly used for gold leaf but the super hard stone burnishers also make great burnishers for etching. The smooth stone does not mar the metal like a metal burnisher and repairs scratches and blemishes better than metal burnishers. Four tip shapes available. Highly recommended by Unai San Martin.
___________________________________________________________

Cape Fear Press is a privately owned contemporary photogravure and photo-etching printmaking studio located in Southeast North Carolina. The owner of CFP is an artist dedicated to non toxic, less toxic and technical innovations in the field of fine art photo etching and photogravure on copper. Cape Fear Press formulated the Puretch Photopolymer etching process for fine art photo etching. Puretch is a high resolution photopolymer etch resist for traditionally etched metal plate intaglio printmaking, PCB photo circuit boards and jewelry. Cape Fear Press has also tested and distributes the new Phoenix Gravure carbon tissue for photogravure. Cape Fear Press was established in 2001 and has been supplying Puretch Photopolymer to artists since then. Puretch is the ideal high-res halftone resist for combining digital imagery with traditional plate working and etching techniques all within the same plate.

Print Publishing:
I plan to begin publishing artists later this year. This will be by invitation only and atists working in all mediums are welcome to inquire. No prior print experience is necessary for this collaboration. The artist will receive half of the printed edition plus an artist's proof and I will retain the other half of the edition plus a printer's proof. One of us will get the even numbers and the other the odd numbers. The plates will be cancelled upon completion. I will cover all the costs of creating the editions. The finished prints will be titled, numbered and signed by the artist and embossed with a small logo also known as the printer's 'chop' mark. We are each free to sell and promote our prints as we choose.

Cape Fear Press has also hosted the Big Print Block Party, a 4x8 foot steamroller relief printmaking event in my hometown of Carolina Beach, NC for 2009 and an encore event in 2010. See photos and video from the past events on our gallery page.

__________________________________________________

PURETCH (pronounced Pure - Etch)
For searchability, Puretch photopolymer is also commonly misspelled as Purtech, Pure-Etch or Puretech. The name originates from the purist who prefers to etch the plate.

Puretch Photopolymer is also sold through two European distributors: |All customers in Europe (except Italy) should contact Polymetaal for purchasing Puretch locally.
Italian customers may purchase Puretch through IL FOGLIO.

Cape Fear Press will ship anywhere in the world if you prefer to order directly.

We are seeking international distributors outside of Europe, please contact us if you are interested and already selling products for printmaking.

Search text in other languages:
Espanol: la película del polímero de la foto resiste para el cobre y los metales de la aguafuerte, heliograbado

Deutsch: Fotoplastikfilm widerstehen für Radierungskupfer und -metalle

Italiano: la pellicola del polimero della foto resiste a per il rame ed i metalli acquaforte

Nederlands: de film van het fotopolymeer verzet tegenzich voor etskoper en metalen

Francais: le film de polymère de photo résistent pour le cuivre et les métaux gravure à l'eau-forte

Russian: пленка полимера фото сопротивляет для меди и металлов вытравливания

写真ポリマーフィルムはエッチングの銅および金属のために抵抗する

照片聚合物影片為蝕刻銅和金屬抵抗

Puretch Photopolymer."

The name Cape Fear is what the region here is referred to and the river that empties into the Atlantic on the point of a Cape that is named the same.

From Chronicles of the Cape Fear River 1660-1916 by James Sprunt
"Looking then to the Cape for the idea and reason of its name, we find that it is the southern most point of Smith's Island - a naked, bleak, elbow of sand, jutting far out into the ocean. Immediately in its front are the Frying Pan Shoals, pushing out still farther, twenty miles, to sea. Together they stand for warning and for woe; and together they catch the long majestic roll of the Atlantic as it sweeps through a thousand miles of grandeur and power from the arctic towards the Gulf. It is the playground of billows and tempests, the kingdom of silence and awe, disturbed by no sound save the seagull's shriek and the breakers' roar. Its whole aspect is suggestive, not of repose and beauty, but of desolation and terror. Imagination can not adorn it. Romance can not hallow it. Local pride can not soften it. There it stands today, bleak, and threatening, and pitiless, as it stood three hundred years ago, when Greenville and White came nigh unto death upon its sands. And there it will stand, bleak, and threatening, and pitiless, until the earth and the sea shall give up their dead. And, as its nature, so its name, is now, always has been, and always will be, the Cape of Fear."

puretch photopolymer | order puretch | puretch instructions | solar instructions | troubleshooting | print gallery | autotype G35 gravure pigment paper
about | Print Inkjet Grayscales | Bob Blackburn | e-mail

This site was created by CapeFearPress on a Mac with Freeway software. Updated Nov 2011