Gelatin Mono-Printing at Artful Dimensions Gallery

I have just taught my first class at Artful Dimensions Gallery in Fredericksburg,VA.  It was a small and intimate group but we had such fun and my students generated some incredible mono- prints!!!

This is the general set up for a Gelatin mono- Printing class. each student is given their own gelatin plate- in this case it was an old lunch room tray filled with a slab of Knox gelatin made at a ratio of 8 envelopes of gelatin to 4 cup of water.

Paint is then spread with a brayer onto the hardened gelatin plate and items (called Masks) are placed on top of the painted gelatin to block the transfer of paint to your paper or fabric.

This is the resulting print from a plate that has several colors of paint on it and a variety of masks ( the masks in this case included mesh veggie bags, a wonderful leaf stamp that was used to take paint off the plate- thus leaving the impression of the stamp, some unraveled polyester yarn, a lace doily and some loose threads taken form the edge of a piece of fabric).  This would then be called print #1.

Here is another 1st print done with green and yellow apint on the gel plate.

After the 1st print is dry, one can do another print with different colors and different masks.  In this case Lynette cut her own masks from paper and laid them down on the gel pate so some of her patterning from print #1 would be protected by the new masks.  It is always such a fun moment to lift off that second print and see what the results are.  Lots of Oh's and AHHHH's!! Such wonderful fun!

After the first print, and the removal of the masks covering the painted plate, there will be paint left behind on the plate.  A second print can be done at this time and this print is called  a Ghost Print and is often my favorite print.  The Ghost Print is always so very detailed,subtle and elegant.

This is one of my favorite Ghost Prints generated that day.

This is just a  small selection of the mono prints made that day in our three hour class! this is a very addictive technique that requires very few tools and depends on the artists willingness to experiment, get messy and take chances.  Don't begin this project without a big stack of papers and fabrics, either white or colored, to print on as YOU WILL NOT WANT TO STOP!!!!

I will be teaching this workshop again soon at Artful Dimensions BUT I am definitely teaching this class on March 31st at Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria ,Va.  Check here for sign up info!! I would love to see you in class!!