Gelli, where have you been all my life?
A few days ago I got a 5" x 5" Gelli plate at the art store.
It's a floppy, gel sheet that you use to apply and stamp paint onto paper.
I've heard a lot of artists talk about how great it is, but I didn't really get it, until I bought one.
Tutorials I watched on You Tube:
This one is from the Gelli company. It has a lot of techniques and is a bit overwhelming:
This video is more straightforward about how much paint and how long to press.
It's pretty simple:
Apply a thin layer of acrylic paint to the gelli plate.
Lay a (glossy, high contrast) magazine image onto it and press evenly (and not too long, as I learned)
This is the back side of the magazine picture:
Press down for a little bit, then peel off the picture and the image stays on the plate!
Or not.
I left the image on too long / too much paint, and it didn't stick to the gelli.
It was supposed to be a face.
Here is a better attempt:
Voila!
The magazine image is now stuck to the gelli plate.
That first layer of paint should be dark.
Also it doesn't matter if it is color picture or not, it just needs to be high contrast.
I don't understand the mechanics of it, but the magazine ink sticks to the gelli and I guess the white areas (no ink) stay blank.
After letting the image dry onto the plate,
(it actually doesn't take long, acrylic ALWAYS dries faster than you want)
you apply another layer of paint over that, a lighter color
then press it down onto a paper.
Pressing the gelli plate down:
It transfers the image pretty well.
Or not.
Apparently I didn't hold this one down long enough, so some of the paint stayed stuck to the gelli plate and not to the paper.
Well, you get the idea.
I spent all afternoon Wednesday making these transfers into my journal.
It's addicting.
Some were more successful than others.
I had trouble with the magazine paper wrinkling.
Still using a bit too much paint, I guess.
I cleaned the brayer (roller) on the paper for some neat effects.
I did some collage around.
It reminds me of art projects I made in high school, using cheap photocopies.
Next time I'm at the art supply store I'm getting the biggest sized Gelli plate!
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