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Exposure to UV (ultraviolet rays)

I now cut out the two printed foils and tape them together making sure that both sides match and diagrams neatly match up. Make sure the ink is inside our foil sandwich; it should be touching the metal when inserted. I then take 2 clean transparent plastic CD covers (Jewell cases) and with small clamps I finally fix the sandwich, with the metal now slid in-between the foils first. All these activities are done under dim yellow light. Now I hide the plate and switch on my 300W Osram Ultra-Vitalux UV sun bulb. The lamp needs around 2 minutes to establish full brightness. After that time I place the plate under the lamp for 2-3 minutes for each side

Developing

This is the last step done in the dark. Put the plate in a solution of sodium hydroxide – NaOH (caustic soda). The sodium hydroxide I use, according to the instructions, should be diluted 10g for 1 litre of water (0.25 molarity), but it was too strong, I ended up with having around 5g per litre (0.125 molarity). This should be experimented with. If the solution is too strong, then all our work will be totally washed away. Assuming the solution is fine, after 10-20 seconds, our painted pattern should show up on the plate. After another few minutes or so in the container, the plate should be cleaned with water.

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