I have a new toy. Been looking, asking, watching videos etc and finally decided Yep, let's go for it.
I have bought one of these.
So why, first of all. Well I felt I needed to inject a bit more of 'me' into things. I don't use fabric so much these days and when I do I tend to paint it with acrylics. Several reasons, for one I don't need or want yards of stuff the same colours, paint gets me the exact colour I want, and also I can do as little as I want. Plus I hate clearing up after dyeing.... the process seems to take 5 minutes and tidying 3 hours. Then I was thinking ought to try some more mono printing, I wonder what if.... duh idiot, I know what if, I've got samples from my studies.
So researching the Gelli Plate and saw a particular brayer/roller recommended, errr I have one of those, liquid acrylic paints, that's all I do use, and I even have some of the Shaper tools like rubber paintbrushes from eons ago. So I bought it, and have had a little play.
The very pale one on the top right is Lutradur, but its the fine grade 30, but at least it works. Otherwise I tried, my fave cartridge paper at 160gsm, some photocopy paper which is 100gsm and some index cards, which I buy from Staples. I did try a couple of old book pages, but they are very old books and the paper tore when I pulled it off the Gelli.
I also have a collection of Masks or Stencils, not quite sure what to call them, made from mylar or plastic. So I used some of those, and here you can see how they ended up after, and I rather like this!
Actually I've not cleaned them. Partly cos it makes me look like a proper artist all messy, and partly cos I saw that its actually not necessary, and apparently the paint will peel off.
I didn't make zillions of samples, no point until right colour choice.
But the good thing from my point of view. Cleared my table, got out the supplies, made a pile of samples, cleaned the Plate and the table, you only need plain water, and, ta dah - only an hour start to finish. Plus they dry so fast, and I don't have space to leave things out to dry. And the messiest thing - my fingers!
