It's Gelli Time ! ~ A Vintage Journey ~ New Challenge

Hi everybody! It's been a wonderful distraction to spend time in my crafty attic room, escaping, if only for a short while, from the awful world events. So, many thanks to our Creative Guide Julia, for presenting us with a great new challenge over on the A Vintage Journey Blog. The title is 'It's Gelli Time' and this is what Julia has to say about it.......

'Yes, get those gel plates out and have a play.  Printing and mark making are unique and somewhat addictive when you start so let us see what you create and how you use it in your project.  Just remember to create your project in one of our preferred styles: vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk'

Well! a play date with my Gelli plate, is just what my creative mojo needed! There are so many different techniques and media that can be used, making the creative possibilities seemingly endless!. If you hop over to The AVJ blog, you'll understand exactly what I mean, when you see Julia's fabulous project, as well as the lovely variety of projects from the other Creative Guides. I chose to explore an image transfer technique, using an inkjet print, and produced this canvas. This is how it came together.........
I started off with a bit of playtime. I used some glossy magazine pictures and tried a few transfer prints. Birgit Koopsen, the veritable queen of Gelli Printing, has produced several videos about image resist printing, these can be found on You tube. Basically, acrylic paint is rolled onto a Gelli plate, then, a glossy magazine picture is placed on the surface and smoothed over. When the picture is carefully lifted off, an imprint will be left on the surface of the gelli plate. Not all magazines will work, so there is an element of trial and error in this process.

 In this photo, the image from the magazine, remains on the Gelli plate, on the left hand side. Once the paint is completely dry, another colour is applied on top of the gelli plate,and a print is pulled as normal. this is the result.....

I tried another picture, and this time, used a stencil to add interest to the sides of the picture......

It's quite amazing how much detail can be picked up. The paper I've used for these prints, is some old fashioned printer paper. It has perforated strips down the sides which can be easily torn away. The next technique I tried was slightly different.I found this on You Tube a while ago and had wanted to give it a try. This time I used a fresh inkjet print and laid it on the surface of my clean Gelli plate. I burnished the back of the print with a smooth, metal spoon to ensure good contact. You can lift the corner of the ink jet print to see if the image has been transferred strongly enough. If not continue burnishing pressing a little harder

This is the first experiment, The Gelli plate can be seen below the inkjet print. Once the inkjet image is  clearly on the Gelli Plate, you  apply paint on top, using a brayer. Here are the resulting prints. I was able to use the same inkjet print three times.....

I really liked the way this technique worked and decided to use it for my final piece. This time I used a picture of one of my favourite artists, Frida Khalo.

This was the first print I made on printer paper. I really like the softness of the image. The inkjet print is on the left. As I wanted to apply the print to a canvas, I made another print on Deli Paper.......

The Deli Paper print is on the right. I also used a fresh inkjet print, as I wanted to make sure there would be enough ink  to provide a good contrast. I also made sure I burnished the back of the picture really well.  I then applied the print to a canvas, using matte gel medium....

Once dry, I trimmed away the excess Deli Paper. To finish off the canvas, I did some light stamping along the sides using a crackle patterned stamp....

 I added gold embossing powder around the edges, and then blended in a little black Archival ink. The final touch was to add a thought provoking quote from the amazing Frida Khalo.......

"Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves,everything revolves, everything flies and goes away"


If you would like to lose yourself in a little Gelli playtime, we would love to see the results, you have a whole month to join in. Just hop over to the A Vintage Journey blog with this link and you'll find the challenge guidelines, as well as plenty of inspiration from The Creative Guides. Stay happy and healthy! x