Gelli Experiments

There was a discussion at the latest CQFA meeting about a Youtuber artist, YeatsMakes. I decided to check one of his videos out and tried one of the techniques he describes. This one is about making a print using a drawing done with a Chinagraph or grease pencil. I made a quick sketch of my hourglass and gave it some texture with one of the random FabMo thingies I keep around for that purpose.

My first mistake, happened in the second step, I placed the drawing on the Gelli Plate and rubbed the back of the paper to transfer the markings. Well it transferred, rather permanently (but more on that later) even without the paint I should have brayered over the Gelli Plate surface first. Guess I should have taken notes on the steps in the video, whoops!

This was the print that I pulled. I kind of like the ghostly image of the hourglass drawing. But otherwise pretty much a bust since I didn't do things in the right order.

I hadn't worked with a brayer in a while, so I was having fun rolling off the excess in my sketchbook. These will make good backgrounds for something else.

I made a whole new drawing and tried again. The black paper on the right is that drawing covered in the black paint, with the drawing transferred to the Gelli plate on the left.

Here's how it looked on the surface of the Gelli Plate before I let the paint dry. The last step is to brayer white over the whole thing, let it dry with weight on it, and then pull your print. 

Well, it worked a little bit better, but not great. More attempts at this are required. It was fun playing around with all my printing stuff, I haven't done that in years. I haven't used the Gelli Plate too much, and I'm really impressed with how it performed.