Friday, March 29, 2019

Gelli and String

I have been doing more gelatin monoprinting, having fun and just playing. I watched a you Tube video by "Alice Art" click here she makes absolutely beautiful gelatin prints, on home made gelatin. I really liked what she did with hands and string. Her prints are much more detailed and in depth than mine. She is working on canvas and I am printing on fabric. I can not seem to get the saturated paint colors, as the fabric absorbs the paint. These prints are ones I wasn't happy with, not enough contrast, no color in the hands, etc... I worked through several options on technique, string first, then a plastic mask for the hands, or vice versa, then light and dark paint colors, trying to get contrast and bright string colors.
I did make several prints I was happy with enough to quilt. Two prints were put together here, one on teal and the dark blue one had just string. Then I framed it in my hand dyed shibori fabric, that blended well with the string effect. It is free motion quilted with rayon thread to outline and detail the print lines. I really like the effect of the string showing on the hands. The burnt sienna paint was dark enough to give a good print, but translucent enough to show the under layer.
The second one I quilted, I wanted to practice on stitching the hands. How much detail was I going to stitch to add detail, or just outline. The bright green string was my favorite part of this one. It could have used more contrast on the hands. I wish I had a photo before I couched on the lime green yarn. It is 8" x 10" the size of the gelatin plate.
I've stitched these prints together in a composition. The rust pair of hands have a beautiful hand dyed fabric border on them, and are now ready for quilting. I will couch on a bunch of my hand dyed cotton string, and call this one "A Tangled Mess." The purple hands were difficult to print. My purple acrylic paints were just being absorbed by the fabric and it looked gray, not purple. So I brayered paint directly on the plastic mask and printed it directly on the fabric. It took three prints and still did not give me a nice purple color. I am calling this one "The Three Fates" after the Greek goddesses that weave the lives of people together. This has been a fun experiment in gelatin printing, I tried it with yarn and it was too thick. The string impression was done with pearl cotton. I drew and cut out the hand masks myself.
After I had come back from the class I taught, I made a few more prints to coordinate with the ones I made in class. I collaged this composition, with several of the botanical prints and some stencil prints with leaves. I like the dark blue, green and golden yellow colors. The free motion quilting added a lot of texture. I have not hand stitched the binding to the back yet. My hand has been cramping up, so I only hand sew in small bursts. I will link this to Nina Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click here to check to see what other talented textile artists are doing this week.

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Gel Print Class

On Thursday I taught a Gelatin Monoprinting class, for several ladies from my Fyber Café art group. I hauled in a whole lot of supplies, stencils, masks, found objects, feathers, twine, potato mashers, combs, as well as paint, fabric and paper. Most of us wanted to print on fabric, but we did do some paper too. Fabric takes a little bit thicker application of paint, to adjust for the weave showing through. We played and played all day. Spring was three weeks late for us, as we had a late snowfall at the end of February, so there was very little greenery to pick. Ferns and heavenly bamboo are green all year around here, I had put some ginkgo leaves in the freezer last fall and they worked great. A friend gave me a hand full of peacock feathers, what fun! One lady got fixated on a spirograph type stencil, another with the turkey feathers. Each had a favorite style, and I encouraged them to make coordinating prints, in different colorways, so they can collage an art quilt from them. The photos are a few from each lady, but I am sure I've got the identities mixed up on some prints. Crystal had a variety of stencils, and the last print is on an "ugly" hand dyed fabric. Lorraine loved the feathers, and she made a few prints with an opaque yellow on black. Meredith used a lot of botanicals, a tangle of eyelash yarn, and stencils. Stephanie's spirographs in many bright colors, she made many more. Tracy used feathers and a favorite stencil. The last print is the stencil and it's ghost print on the same page, isn't it fabulous! I made some prints to use as the demonstration, but I did not get any pics, I'm sure some of them will show up in a future project. I will be linking this to Nina Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click here to see what other fantastic textile artists are doing this week.