This is the first in a series of videos on the production of our “Dinosaurs” birthday card designed byJulia Rothman. Here Max demonstrates the polymer plate making process.

To create the plates, we first start with a film that has a clear image area and an opaque non-image area. We place this film on top of the polymer plate that has a layer of photo sensitive emulsion and expose it to UV light. The light that shines through the clear image area of the film hardens the light sensitive emulsion. Then we scrub the unexposed soft emulsion away, leaving a raised relief plate. After rinsing the plate and putting it on a heating tray to dry, we expose the plate to light again for added strength. Lastly, we apply an adhesive backing to attach the polymer plate to a boxcar base.

Stay tuned next week for the next step in creating this letterpress Dinosaur greeting card.