Mutant Materials 2

Printing and glass, it seems to me, really goes back to the origins of photography. There has long been a tradition of painting on glass with stained glass windows, but with the advent of wet-plate collodion photography in the 1850's images could now be fixed to a glass plate and reproduced*. Until the photographic negative film was developed by Eastman Kodak in 1885 this was the best material for exposing images onto, and even then for many years, until the technology of film had improved, glass plates gave a better quality image.

But glass as a medium for printing has only really come into it's own since Harvey Littleton founded the Studio Glass movement in the early 1960's, so it is here that I will start my investigations into Print and Glass.
Littleton developed a process of using glass as an etching plate for print instead of metal which he termed "Viteography"**. The advantages of glass were many - the glass is inert and therefore doesn't react with the chemicals in the printing inks, the glass surface wipes more cleanly so sharper contrasts can be achieved, a glass plate will not warp or deteriorate with the pressure of the printing process - so the prints will remain consistant (although there is of course more danger of the plate actually breaking) and finally, the transparency of the glass allows for much easier registration of print layers. 
Many of the artists who have worked with the vitreographic process seem to be those involved in the studio glass movement in America, such as Dale Chihuly and Ann Wolff.

Dale Chihuly Venetians, 1994 Edition of 50 - APs only image: 30 x 22," paper size: 36 x 30" Ann Wolff My Dark Mother, 1984 Intaglio vitreograph on Arches, Edition of 50 image: 9.5 x 9.5," paper size: 16 x 15"

Despite these advantages though, vitreography has remained a niche method of producing prints - no doubt due to the fragility of the plates and the fact that alterations cannot be made once work on a plate has commenced. Also, the prints themselves are still produced on paper - the plate itself is not the work, which is really what I am interested in.


Next I will start to look at transparent and translucent print surfaces and what current techniques might be used for printing on them.


*http://www.rleggat.com/photohistory/history/collodio.htm
  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eastman/sfeature/wetplate_step1.html
  http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/videoDetails?cat=2&segid=1726
**http://www.littletoncollection.com/Vitreography%20processes/vitreography_processes.htm