Gelli prints and stencils

Over the holidays, my sister and I played with my gelli plate, acrylic paint and stencils.  Gelli plate prints seem to be a bit trial and error...for every decent one, you get four that are really ugly.  I guess we just need a lot more practice!  For those who haven't used one, it is basically monoprinting without a press.

Anyway, here are a few of mine that possibly could be used for something :-).  These prints were pulled on 12x12 deli paper, so they will be very flexible for collage.

Create Retreat - Day 2 - Gelli Print Joy

I had registered for a class on gelli plate printing, taught by Kari McKnight-Holbrook.  She is a fun, lively instructor.  I had never used a gelli plate before, and I can confidently say that I am now hooked.

We used 12" deli paper to print on with acrylic paints that were brayered on to the gelli plate.  It's perfect to adhere to a firmer substrate or to collage with matte medium, as it can be translucent.  A quick trip to a restaurant supply store is in my future next week!  We also used a lot of stencils for patterns.  In 6 hours, I made about 50 prints.  I only tossed two.  (Shhhh...don't tell Kari; she thinks you can salvage anything...but when you put the alphabet stencil down backwards, it's not too usable, LOL.)  I am loving my stack of papers!  Here is just a very small sampling.

Here are two of my favorites.  The first aspen trees is the final "cleanup" image.  Often the cleanup image is a sacrifice, just to get the plate clean for the next set of colors.  But I love how it turned out.  The second has a warm glazing over it.  I had never used acrylic glazing medium (you add just a drop of paint to tint it).  It is a wonderful thing!   I added the stamped words in copper embossing when I got home:  "Oh good gigantic smile of the old earth this autumn morning" (Browning).