Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Gelli Plate Monoprints

Since I bought my Gelli Plate I don't think I've used any designer paper. Which is crazy but I REALLY love making my own paper and the fact that it all matches my paints is a terrific bonus. 

I took some shots of my process and thought I'd share them. If you have any questions just leave me a comment and I'll be happy to answer them.


Materials: Gelli Plate, paint, stamps, stencils, brayer, paper and I use Golden GAC-100 or acrylic gel glazing medium to help my paint stay 'open' longer. Otherwise they can sometimes dry out a bit while I'm messing around. 

Don't forget to have your art journal nearby. I always clean my brayer, stamps and stencils into my AJ and it creates a great jumping off point for interesting backgrounds.


Pull your print:


Add white paint + GAC-100 and roll it out. Don't clean the plate, you want the pink and teal.


Lay stencils over paint


Choose a 'failed' gelli print. Or, if you don't have any fails 
- good for you!
use book paper, scrapbook paper, whatever.


Place it face down on top and run your brayer overtop



left is stencils, right is print. A lot prettier don't ya think?


Peel off the stencils (blot them in your AJ!) and find another 'failed' print


Ta Da!


I'm thinking wings! Or flower petals. Or scales. Love, love, love all the pretty colors. 

This is why I said don't clean off the Gelli Plate.

Now let's do this a little faster

Add some warm colored paint and a squirt of Acrylic glazing medium (it's the thin white stuff in the picture). You can see I didn't clean the plate. 




Left is Ghost print, Right is First Print. Yeah, I missed pushing down in that top corner. No big deal.

Now roll on some yellow and blue and stamp into it


Lay down some stencils/punchinella



Clean stamps, brayer and stencils off on your AJ


So remember that pink and orange one we made a minute ago? Let's play with it a little more.

Roll on some violet and add a figure cut from a magazine or catalog


Stamp into it a little. I'm using a circle cut from a pair or flip flops


lay your print right over top and press firmly

Getting cooler!

I have a ton more to share. Hope you enjoyed seeing this peek into my process.

5 comments:

Kim said...

I LOVE this! I have hardly used my Gelli Plate yet because I have too much else going on...but now I'm feeling like I NEED to get it out! Thank you for sharing :)

donna!ee said...

very cool indeed! thank you much for sharing blest be ;D

KarenR said...

Love your process and ideas! Makes me want to get my plate out!

Gez Butterworth said...

I NEED a Gelli Plate!!! Amazing samples Nicole, thanks for sharing how-to.. I've loved catching up with your blogging xx

Lindsay said...

Dumb question here... what is an AN? I've only just started painting/crafting (again.since I did it a lot when I was younger) and am so interested in this particular way. I'm researching the Gelli Plate (I'm still in.the early stages of using very cheap paint and paper) but this looks like a great investment!