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.