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.
