Plates are made of zinc or aluminum, light in weight and just thick enough to be rigid, have long been in use to supplant the more cumbersome stones; in industrial lithography they have practically replaced them. They are sold ready-grained to imitate the texture of stone, and also in a variety of other grains for various types of artistic and reproduction purposes. The technique of using metal plates is basically not very different from that applied to work on stone. The market has become, in some views, over flooded with these types of prints in great numbers, at times in the 20,000th and more. This being true in the most part, makes it very difficult for the smaller editions artists on the market. For this has brought confession and uncertainty to the consumer of the value and quality of print that they are buying. There are no Governmental or lawful rules that can regulate or enforce marketing and marketing of prints. The Artist should and many do use ethical guide lines to follow the making and distribution of their prints in the market place. The guide lines are: : reproducing the art work to the highest quality. : limited number of prints; this is up to the individual artist on the number of prints made. But it is out of consideration to the consumer that only a small number be made. That can range from numbers of 100 to1000 to 2000 to 5000 and so on. : no more reproductions will be made of the same art piece, after the first reproduction run is sold out. (usually this means the artist destroys the plates etc., some don't but should never use the plates again.) So it comes down to the discretion of the consumer what they want to buy, what I like to call the QQAC (quality, number quanity, and artist choice.) Artist Kassity Bell