March 2014 Recap

I've been on a creative binge the past few months, feels good to come out of my slump and have a goal to work towards - a booth at the local harvest festival.

This month I've had fun playing with my round gelli plate:

I created some gelli print collages:

I created my own stencils:

I created a whole heap of dreamcatcher/mobiles:

I created Beverley who has now been framed and will go to the town of Beverley for the Art Exhibition soon.

I've been a little too busy to do all my art journal challenges - oops but here are the two I did finish and both used the gelli plates:

Documented Life Project Wk 10:

Wk 11:

Hope your month went well.

PS  Do you love creating gelli prints?  Want a place to discuss gelli printing?  To show off your work?  Share your ideas? Discuss the pros and cons of different paints/paper/plates/tools etc?  Get some great ideas on what to do with the thousands of prints you have created?

Then I would love you to join me at the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group.

Homemade Gelli Plate Stencils

I've made some more stencils for my gelli plate using acetate and a craft knife.

 This is my favourite print that actually uses both stencils I created today.

Round stencil - I made it a little smaller than the 8 inch round gelli plate to give it a border and to show that it's a round stencil.

1. Print made with the stencil on the plate.
2. Take the stencil off the plate create another print.
3. Ta Daa!

Bird Stencil - I printed out a photo of a red breasted robin that my dad took and used it for the outline of the stencil and to create a mask.

My Round Gelli Plate Stencil

Today I created a stencil for the round gelli plate.  I was inspired by Tammy James from the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts facebook group and by my friend Inge's metal art.

I chose a sunset/sunrise which was probably not the best idea as I always wanted two different colours.  I am also planning a bird and a daisy. I drew it out on paper to get in my head exactly which bits were to be cut out and which pieces were to be bridge pieces.

Here are some of the prints that worked out.  :D

This is a round gelli plate:

Gelli Print Collages 2

I've been working on some more gelli print collages.

Green on Blue, Collage on Board, 30cm x 30cm, 12" x 12"

Many thanks to members of the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group for their comments, thoughts and advice when I asked them for help on the above painting.  They gave me confidence, ideas and inspiration and I'm grateful for this community. 

Here are some progress pics:

Trio, Collage on Board, 30cm x 30cm, 12" x 12"

Trio started out like this:

I loved this print and the colours which looked like they were of similar colours - one print straight after the other.  I cut up the print into 1 and 2 inch squares and 1 x 2 inch rectangles and began to glue them - darkest squares in the bottom left up to red in the top left, blue in the bottom right corner up to the green and the lightest colours in the top right quadrant.

It doesn't have all the textures of previous collages but that's good to create something slightly different.

PS  Do you love creating gelli prints?  Want a place to discuss gelli printing?  To show off your work?  Share your ideas? Discuss the pros and cons of different paints/paper/plates/tools etc?  Get some great ideas on what to do with the thousands of prints you have created?

Then I would love you to join me at the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group.

Gelli Print Collages

I cut up some of my gelli prints into inch squares and 2 inch squares and glued them together.

This one is A4 size or 8.5 inches by 12 inches on mixed media 300gsm paper and I created another one today on a 12 inch gessobord but haven't painted in the black lines.

I have also uploaded this to Red Bubble - I fixed up my computer so it could scan!

Here are a couple of other pieces I worked on today:

The collages below are based on bricks and paving;

PS  Do you love creating gelli prints?  Want a place to discuss gelli printing?  To show off your work?  Share your ideas? Discuss the pros and cons of different paints/paper/plates/tools etc?  Get some great ideas on what to do with the thousands of prints you have created?

Then I would love you to join me at the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group.

Round Gelli Plate Fun 3

I was very inspired by a quilting pattern I saw on Instagram by @sandieloves2art to create these round gelli plate prints.

In this one I printed the yellow round print first then rolled on blue/green to the plate and masked out areas to keep the yellow.

In this second print blue paint went on first then the yellow.

I created the masked out shape by cutting out a circle from tracing/greaseproof/deli paper, then folding it over many times into triangles, then open out the paper and cut along the folded lines.  You should have many little triangles that you can put onto plate.

In the above prints the masked out shapes had the pointy end towards the outside then I decided to turn them around and put the masking triangles with the pointy ends towards the centre.

Top row: dark/blue over light/yellow. Pointy end toward centre.
Bottom row: light over dark and pointy end to the outside.
Left hand column is the bottom layer ghost print of the right hand first layer - so be prepared with many sheets.

Another tip - it can be very difficult to print one layer exactly over the other so I put the paper on the plate as close to the edge as possible. 

Also when making the masking shapes - after I had folded it I then cut off a little bit of the thick end.  I liked to have the outer edge of the print coloured as it grounds the print though I have done it the other way and gone all the way to the edge and you seem to get a bunch of shapes floating in the air/white space of the paper.

I have also been creating some more dreamcatcher/mobiles too.

Hope you've been having fun gelli printing too.

PS  Do you love creating gelli prints?  Want a place to discuss gelli printing?  To show off your work?  Share your ideas? Discuss the pros and cons of different paints/paper/plates/tools etc?  Get some great ideas on what to do with the thousands of prints you have created?

Then I would love you to join me at the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts Facebook Group.

The PaperLove Blog Hop

I love paper.  I love to pick up old books and smell the pages.  These are the two old books that I own.

Whilst in Berlin in July 2013 I popped into a store looking for pens and found these beautiful sheets of paper and swooned and sighed - we have nothing like this in Perth, Australia - I wanted to buy one of each for my collection.

 When I first started creating my mixed media girls a few years ago I fell in love with scrapbooking paper.  Those 12 inch square sheets are beautiful works of art. I have a large boxful of yummy goodness - some I can't use because they are simply too pretty and were bought because I just had to have that beauty in my house.  When I go to the local scrapbooking supplies shop I just lose track of time when I'm in there - looking and touching the textured sheets.  Here are a few...

These days I use my gelli plate to create my own original papers to use for my mixed media girls clothes/hair/hats. I use whatever paper I can find on the gelli plate - old map books, old dictionaries and books, greaseproof/deli and tissue paper as well as cardstock and art journal paper. It would be awesome to see some of my gelli prints turned into scrapbooking paper or large sheets of paper.

 

I loved paper and gelli printing so much that I created the Gelatin Printing Enthusiasts FaceBook group to meet others who feel the same way.

The PaperLove Blog Hop is a celebration of all things paper! Follow the links to discover more bloggers who love paper and use it to inspire and delight. And if you want to explore a whole world of paper, and stretch your paper passion further with a host of creative projects, why not join the innovative new online course PaperLove (starts March 31). Led by book artist Rachel Hazell, PaperLove is a five week creative adventure for paper lovers. Find out more here.

Participant list:

Majo Bautista / Tona Bell / Louise Best / Cathy Bluteau / Jennifer Bomgardner / Giova Brusa / Lindsay Buck / Beka Buckley / Joanna Caskie / Jonathan Chapman (Mr Yen) / Halle Cisco / Sarah Clare / Cathryn Clarge / Dawn Clarkson / Rhiannon Connelly / Jenny D'Fuego / Molly Dhiman / Ian Dudley / Ayisatu Emore / Akmal Farid / Monika Forsberg / Claire Fritz-Domeney / Louise Gale / Chrissy Gaskell / Julie Hamilton / Emma Hawman / Rachel Hazell / Holly Helgeson / Claudine Hellmuth / Kim Henkel / Sarah Hoffman / Joanne Hus / Paula Joerling / Beth Kempton / Julie Kirk / Eos Koch / Katie LaClair / Kristy Lankford / Michelle Manolov / Doreen Marts / Rosie Martinez-Dekker / Tori Mears / Maria Mederios / Lise Meijer / Debbie Miller / MaryJane Mitchell / Suzy Naidoo / Grace Noel / Hannah Nunn / Camilla Olsson / Jo Packham / Rachelle Panagarry / Monette Pangan / Melanie Paul / Nicole Piar / Jen Pitta / Liz Plummer / Julie Reed / Michelle Reynolds / Lisa Rivas / Angee Robertson / Natalie Ryan / Aisling Ryan / Elisabet Sapena / Kyrrha Sevco / Jamie Sprague / Elizabeth Steele / Terri Stephens / Juniper Stokes / Mary Tanana / Maike Thoma / Linda Tieu / Gabrielle Treanor / Tammy Tutterow / Deborah Velasquez / Jordan Vinograd Kim / Cat Whipple / Brooke Witt / Katie Wood / Amelia Woodbridge