Sunday, March 03, 2013

Gelli Plate Surprise ...


Yesterday I decided to have a little fun with my newly-acquired 8x10 Gelli Printing Plate. This may come as a surprise to some of my creative friends, but I'm a bit of a doofus around new tools. I've watched other people magically creating amazing stuff with ease, then I've rushed out enthusiastically to buy whatever miracle toy they were playing with ... only to find the stuff I create is ... a hopeless muddle.

I'm very happy to report that my experience with the Gelli Plate is *not* one of those times. As near as I can tell it may well be idiot proof (Exhibit A: the collage above). With a minimum of tools, a variety of acrylic paints (some new and luscious, some old and cranky), some leftover divider tab sheets and about an hour, I created a generous stack of deliberate experiments and gorgeous happy accidents.

So ... what did I love? Each print doesn't need much paint, so it's very economical. Think that "clean up" is a drag? Don't clean up till the end! Yes, you can change colours as you go. See that collage above? I only cleaned up at putting away time. Don't like the first print you pull? That's okay, set it aside and print over it a second, third or fourth time till it can't take it anymore and decides to be gorgeous for you. Think you hate the final result? Not so fast. See that mottled green on the bottom row? I really hated it when I pulled it, but looking closely at it later I decided it was very nice indeed. And did I mention the no clean up till the end thing? Oh yeah ...

So ... paints ... I used whatever I had on hand. Mostly random acrylics, although my friend Rose recently gave me some super sparkly Dick Blick Glitter Watercolours, and while their pigment wasn't strong, the sparkle is very cool (and that's from a person who usually shuns glitter). The more liquid your paint the more prints you'll get from each inking and the easier it is to spread it around, but even my less liquid paints were fine, just took a bit more time to brayer them on evenly. Whatever the paint is, the first pull is usually fine, and if the paint seems too dry for a second pull, just lightly mist the plate. The green dots on the middle square in the collage were from a misted pull, and I love how they turned out.

Tools I used: stencils, foam stamps, a little graining tool, the core from a roll of skotch tape, a rubber brayer and a spritzy water bottle. I also taped a length of freezer paper to my table before I started - the Gelli Plate contains mineral oil, so it needs to be on something so you don't mark your table. Some people use a piece of glass or a teflon sheet. This also helps you if you want to rotate the plate while you're using it.

My other essential item (gleaned from watching various gelli vids on the net) is something to roll your brayer on after you've inked the plate. My choice of was an outdated copy of Leonard Maltin's movie guide. Let's face it, there's nothing more out of a date than a 20-year-old book of movie reviews. I suppose I could have torn out the pages and rolled on them, but I decided to just roll and turn the page. I figure I can throw it in my bag and take it to collage parties.

The table (post clean up). Poor Leonard! His reviews were never this colourful.

Well ... that's about it ... I just signed up for Carolyn Dube's Colorful Gelli Printing Workshop. I've been watching all the wonderful videos on her blog and I love her enthusiasm. In her last post she gelli'd her freakin' shoes (!). I'm looking forward to learning a ton more fun stuff to do with my Gelli Plate. I mean, if this is what I can create in an hour with *no real* knowledge, just imagine how far from a hopeless muddle I'll be with a little more practice.

8 comments:

Susan said...

Nice prints, Penelope! Did you get your plate locally or did you order it? I haven't seen them for sale here yet. :(

penelope said...

Hi Susan ... I ordered it online - I asked everywhere and no one had them locally. Even the stores across the border weren't carrying them, so I think online might be the only option at the moment. So glad I did, though ... I had so much fun and even the "oops" were easy to overprint and make useful. :)

Unknown said...

Like you, I have the Gelli plate and have been watching many demos, etc --- your story was very entertaining and encouraging :) ---- Smiled all the way through it as I could relate

Ann said...

I've really wondered if the class is something that I should do. I'm pretty financial challenged right now and would have to ask for the class as a present from my kids. Is it really worth the $60? OR do you think one could play around enough to get some good results.

penelope said...

Hi stampcars ... signing up for online classes is always a debate for me, too. I don't sign up for a lot of classes and I also want to know the class will be worth it. In this case, I've been following Carolyn's regularly posted free videos on her blog for awhile now, and I've been impressed with the amount of info and enthusiasm she puts into them. Having just finally purchased a gelli plate, I thought she'd be my best bet to get further along in the process. I'd suggest you watch some of her free blog videos for yourself and see if she's a good match for you. Good luck!

Ann said...

Thanks for the answer! I'll check them out first.

Gwen said...

I hope you will bring this to the retreat in May. I hope you are going to be there, I am trying to make it work to be there for the whole thing.

penelope said...

Yep ... planning to do that. I love how portable and tidy it is. Hope I see you there!