More Gel Prints

I have been playing with my Gelatin Plate, making lots and lots of prints. I'm going to be teaching a class soon, so I thought some practice was in order. I also wanted to check out different paints, and the difference of printing on fabric and paper. The fabric takes a thicker application of paints, and a heavy body acrylic or tube paints works best. The paper works with ANY paints, and a thinner layer can be applied. Paying attention to the opacity and translucent qualities of the paint was important. You can't put light colors onto darker with out the opacity, but the translucency made the colors glow and many of the layers show better.

I worked mostly with stencils this round, trying many that I have collected. I am a stencil ADDICT! That is the main reason I bought the Brother Scan N Cut, to cut my own stencils. With all the many prints the next step is to make something from them. ???? What to do? I pulled a selection of like colored prints, mostly blues and greens with a bit of complimentary red, added some botanical prints from another session, and collaged them together. I really like the color combo, and the leafy designs gave it a cohesiveness, but I think it lacks focus. But I am going to use it as a sampler for my class. I think it would be a nice table topper with a center piece in the middle.

The sprouting bulb images are from a rubber stamp I carved, actually four, each stage of the sprouting. The leafy green at the top right is thermos-fax screened, from a screen I got from Judy Coates Perez at Craft Napa last year.

I really enjoy the quilting on the gelatin prints. Using rayon threads gives it some shine, as the paint is quiet matt. I outline all the printing which gives it lots of texture, especially the hexagons. With lots of thread color changes, it brings out the details. I haven't come up with a name for this one, besides gelatin sampler, any better ideas?

I began to assemble a second piece, more of the earth tone colors, yellow, orange, rust and red, with blue/green accents. The blue green took over more than I had intended, but it still reads warmer than the first piece.

A few close up pictures of some of the printing details. I think I will call this one "Tire Tracks" or just "Treads." I am linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" click here check it out to see what other talented artists are doing this week.