Fun With Gelli Plates

A couple weeks ago I decided to experiment and play with using a Gelli Plate.  The Gelli Plate is a brand of reusable, non perishable gelatin printing plate.  It allows you to do monoprinting at home without needing a printing press.  (Remember when I did monoprinting during my printing class in college?)

I used colorful craft acrylic paint, a brayer to apply paint, and a variety of stencils to create patterns.  The process is similar to the monoprinting I had done before, but using a variety of colors instead of only black ink makes a huge difference.  Using the gelli plate was a lot more experimental.  I would often mix colors using the brayer, and print multiple times on the same piece of paper to create depth.

I used one of my favorite prints to cover a small paper mache box from the craft store.  I traced the top of the box and cut a circle of paper for the lid, and cut two paper strips the same height as the side of the box.  Before covering the box with paper, I painted part of the lid blue to coordinate with the print.  I brushed Glue N Seal onto the back of the paper and pressed it onto the box to smooth out any bubbles.  Once all the paper was on, I brushed on another coat of Glue N Seal to protect it.

Every month at my store, I have a group of ladies from a local senior living center come on an art "field trip."  This was their third time out, and I wanted to do something a little different.  So I showed them how to use the gelli plates, and then they covered boxes with their prints.  The ladies had a great time and the boxes turned out just darling.  They are going to use the boxes to hold their "bingo money."  How cute!  I want to go play bingo with those ladies, they are a ton of fun.

Textural Monotypes

Last month my printmaking class experimented with textural monotypes.  A textural monotype involves blackening a plate with ink, placing textured materials on top, and printing the plate.  The areas with textures placed on top will print white unless rolled with ink, and the background will print black.  The fun part about textural monotypes is rearranging the textures and reprinting the plate.  Moving the textural materials will leave impressions in the ink on the plate, and will coat the back of the textured material with ink.

This set of prints was created using yarn, part of an old knit sweater, die cut scrapbook paper, lace, and ric-rac.

This set of prints was created using lace, die cut scrapbook paper, paper doilies, and a photocopy of a photograph.

I transferred the photo using a paper lithograph technique.  I coated the photocopy with gum arabic, which allowed ink to stick to the black areas of my photocopy, and resist the white areas.  It basically turns the photocopy into a temporary printing plate.

Monotypes Week 2

My second week of printing monotypes was an experiment with dark field monotypes. A dark field monotype starts with a plate coated in black ink with a sheet of dry printing paper on top. An image is then drawn onto the back of the sheet of paper. Pressure from the drawing utensil (pen, pencil, stick, cotton swab, fingertip, etc...) transfers ink onto the paper, leaving a white area on the plate. After the drawing is transferred, the front of the paper will have dark lines on a white background. Running the plate through the press will create a print with white lines on a dark background.
For my prints I used a drawing I made while in Rome this past spring. The drawing is of the obelisk in St. Peter's square in the Vatican. As with most prints, the image turns out backwards from the original drawing. Next time I will probably reverse my image on tracing paper before using it for a print.

Monotypes Week 1

One of the classes I am taking this semester is all about Printmaking. The first few weeks are focused on creating monotypes, and then moving on to the various methods of intaglio printing. The first week of class focused on light field monotypes.
A monotype is a printing technique that produces unique prints that, unlike most forms of printing, cannot be exactly duplicated. Light field monotypes are created by painting printing ink onto a non-porous surface, and pressing paper onto the plate. After the initial print, the artist can add or subtract ink from the plate and create an additional image. This process of reworking and printing is what makes monotypes so unique.
I created two prints of waterlilies. The first print had a dark background with lighter lily pads. For the second print I added more ink to the lily pads, and splattered some solvent on the background for some texture.