Gel Printing

I've been in a gel-printing type of mode here lately.  Gel-printing is essentially monoprinting using a gel pad made from powdered gelatin and water.  You know the kind, Knox gelatin in the orange box.  It's an easy process to make the pad and way fun doing the printing.

Savannah, age 7

I've been pretty busy printing away.  

I've done my own practice printing, a gel-printing session with my kids class at Mount Dora Center for the Arts, and a gel-printing session with my good friends at a 

Girls Night Out down in Winter Park.  

Each and every session had people oooing and aaaahhing over the process and the result.  It's very loose and free.

I could do this stuff every day, I love it so much.

Valerie, age 5

Annabelle, age 6

 These are just a few of the prints that were made.  We used a variety of things to create the images, from paper cutouts to plants, feathers, bubble-wrap,  plastic canvas, and eyelash yarn, just to name a few.  Most of the prints were made using 3 layers of color.  I used Golden Liquid Acrylics for the paint. It's just the most amazing stuff. 

Me, age 47

Me, again.

 The print above is the "ghost" print of the main print.  This is the second print that is taken after the masking items are removed from the gel plate.  It's definitely more ethereal and soft.  When using plants or leaves that have veins, the ghost is where those veins will show up now that the plant is out of the way and only the impression remains in the paint. Printing is sometimes hard to get your head around so I find the best way to understand it is to do it.  So, um, DO IT.  It's a blast (directions below).

Shaelyn, 11

Side by side~Lynn Tomlinson and me.
Lynn printed the girl print, I did the house.
Picture does not do this justice, it's pretty cool in person.
Girls Night Out - March 28

For everything you possibly need to know about gel-printing go to Linda Germain's website.  She has video of making prints, making the gel pad, and all sorts of tips.  You can find her beautiful work posted on her website, as well. 

Last, but not least, here are a few things that I learned through this process that might make life a bit easier to know.

1. You can use any size pan to make the pad, just pre-measure the volume of liquid for the size of pan and use Linda's formula for figuring the powder.
2. Use the plastic wrap to line the pan before pouring the pad, it makes life much easier.
3. Err on the side of a bit thicker on the pad.  Thin breaks up easier and is less tough (not so good with use by a lot of kids).
4. If you don't like the way the gel pad initially comes out, just chop it up and re-melt it and away you go.  No worry about error with this project.
5. I don't have a microwave, so when I re-melted I used a double boiler and it was fabulous and easy.
6. Stay loose and have fun, this is a great project.

If you give it a try, be sure and let me know.  

Happy Printing!