Gelatin Mono-Printing At Ten Thousand Villages

Two weekends ago I participated in a Demo Day at our local Ten Thousand Villages Store in Fredericksburg. I must admit that I am responsible for getting this whole program off the ground. Ten Thousand Villages (TTV) is one of my favorite shops as they sell Fair Trade Craft items from third world countries with all of the profits returned to the artisans. I go in to get inspired quite regularly and I have gotten to be quite friendly with Kathy and Terri , the gals that work there. One day, Terri noticed my purse- one of my denim collage painted ones . She wanted to touch it and examine it and of course, I allowed that! Love that!! Anyway, she asked if I knew of other artisans who did artwork similar to what they stocked in their store. I told her all about Liberty Town, and the wonderful artists who work there and I gave her some names. I also told her that I would ask members of the Spinners and Weavers Guild if anyone might be interested in doing some demo's there at the shop. Well, before I knew it , I had 10 gals raring to demo from the Guild and several other artisans- a recycled Metal worker named Megan Hicks and a Batik artist named Amber Arrowwood and myself slated for Demo Days!! All due to my big mouth!! So wear your artwork or carry your artwork, you never know where comments and conversations about your artwork, will lead!!!!

Kathy and Terri did a fabulous job of advertizing and when I arrived at the shp for the two hour alloted time, there were people waiting for me to get started!!! I got all set up and started to play and to talk- I was not planning on a full lecture but that is what it turned out to be.People were fascinated by the process and asked many 'What if..." questions. That led me to try some new things and to answer their questions all at the same time!! All were very interested in Liberty Town and brochures and class schedules were handed round ! All in all it was a very successful day for all of us!! This will only be good for Liberty Town as many now know more about the location and the availablity of very unusual class opportunities. I was also able to talk about the classes that I will be offering at Liberty Town over the next two months so I may even get some students signed up!! Too Cool!!

Below you will find examples of some of the fabrics and papers that I printed that day!

On this next piece I used a wood print block that I purchased at the shop. If ever you buy one of these blocks, by sure to soak it for a bit in some water, as they are extremely dry and will absorb any paint that you try to stamp with!!! Trust me, I KNOW!!!

The old wood blocks give lovely patterns. On the right side you see stamping from a mesh bag.

This piece began it's life as a piece of sheet music. I coated it with some dilute gesso and then did several rounds of printing on it. It has a very layered look which becomes more apparent if you click on the picture and look at the enlargment.

This piece bagan as a sheet of a chinese newspaper, coated with gesso wash and then three layers of gelating prints.

This was the first print of a mesh bag and some sppol prints and the following shows the ghost print from the same plate. Love this!!

This last example is my favorite from that day! I think that it is the shapes( large bubble, bubble wrap) and the fabulous contrasting colors!!