Oh what a joy to play with my new Gelli Plate. I have only had it a few days but they have been some of the best days ever. How much fun can a girl have?
FLIPPIN' LOADS!!!!
It is difficult to describe how these latest prints have come about, mainly because it is just so 'hands on'. I saved the not so good prints from the previous days and used them as the background for some of the prints I did today. I really recommend you keep all you trial prints. This is where the magic happens. You never know what you are going to get if you re-use them.
Take this one for example
I had tried to print some leaves but the first ones dried before I could take the print, only the last 3 stayed wet enough to be picked up. Disappointed, I set the piece of paper aside to dry. After doing a few more prints I decided to leave the Gelli plate 'dirty' and added some white paint. I spread it out with the brayer and of course the white paint got tainted with the residual colours. I then took the dry leaf print which I thought had failed and laid it on the 'not white' paint. Not only did the blue leaves show through, but the residual marks and spots left on the plate from the earlier prints were sucked up into the white. The only problem is you can never do the same thing again, which is a real shame as I love this print.
Trying to create the same thing is practically impossible but providing you have a wet enough paint base, similar colour prints can be made. Like in the following examples. I did add a little interest with some white spots on the last print because I was de-inking my stamp pad, but you can see that they are all from the same original laying down of paint.
I flicked through some of the less attractive prints from the early attempts and began to create some really interesting effects.
The red one was printed over an orange background which brightens the finished result. The central one is printed over a purple background giving a great contrast to the sage greens and the one on the far right is a print taken on a very bare plate with similar colours. The rings were formed using elastic bands dipped in paint and placed onto the plate.
This brings me on nicely to the next blog post I should do. I shall tell you about the things I have used so far to create the patterns in these prints. You will be surprised by some of the 'tools' I have found or developed.
As always, please leave a comment to say you have visited. I read all your comments.
I am off to do some more printing. See you soon...........
Kim x
