Rubbing Plates used as Printing Plates

In yesterday's post, below, I described start-to-finish the process used by my friend Mary Ann Russo to create rubbing plates using stencils.  Mary Ann makes rubbing plates to use with Shiva sticks and hand-dyed fabrics.  I on the other hand use them to make rubbings on paper (see yesterday's post) or to make prints on "catch-all" papers.  (These are the foreign newspapers that I spread under artwork-in-progress to catch leftover acrylic paints; I clean my brushes on these papers before putting the brushes into water to be washed.  After a "catch-all" sheet has been used enough to have become a colorful background, it's then used for Gelli Arts prints or prints of other kinds.)

In today's post, I'll show 10 papers, all but one printed with acrylic paints and Mary Ann's rubbing plate created with my 9"X12" stencil Vases.  The first (purple) print below was made this way, on paper previously painted with the use of my 9"X12" stencil Twinship, which is visible as blue patterns of the background.  The second print (far left) was made with crayon -- after placing paper over the rubbing plate, I rubbed crayon across the top of the paper, picking up outlines of the raised shapes below the paper.

Crayon

 
For detailed information on creating these rubbing plates, just scroll down to yesterday's post, below this one.  Nine of the prints above were made by brushing acrylic paints over the rubbing plate, then pressing papers down onto the plate.  The rubbing plate was washed before paint could dry on its surface.

Bold Red Flowers on Readymade Dark Backgrounds

5.75"X5.75" blank greeting cards from JAM* are a perfect fit for use with my 6"X6" stencils -- but this time, I've used part of my 9"X12" Nosegay stencil with one of JAM's dark bronze metallic fold-over blank cards.  With a Sofft Art Sponge I applied bright red, heavy-body acrylic paint thru my stencil, having first secured both the card and the stencil with masking tape, to hold them in place while I applied paint.

JAM makes bifold (also called "foldover") blank greeting cards in a wide range of sizes; one other size is 5"X7", in another dark color; these are on non-metallic cardstock.  I like card blanks that are already filled with color, ready to go -- having them on hand certainly saves time!

Since the above card measures 5"X7", I used only a portion of my 9"X12" stencil Buds with the same paint and applicator as on the earlier card.  The only difference is that I added daubs of red-gold glitter as a finishing touch.

Below are these two stencils shown in their full 9"X 12" sizes:

 

Buds

Nosegay

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*I recommend JAM's foldover cards because they are made with cardstock sturdy enough to stand up to mixed-media use.  

3 BRAND-NEW STENCILS

My latest 3 stencils were released Feb. 6 --

6"X6" PRESSED LEAVES

6"X6" SWAYING GRASSES

9"x12" TANGLED PODS

This post focuses on Swaying Grasses --

SWAYING GRASSES ON A DARK METALLIC BRASS GREETING CARD COVER

SWAYING GRASSES used with my 9"X12" stencil QUEEN ANNE'S LACE

SWAYING GRASSES

SWAYING GRASSES USED WITH A GELLI PLATE PRINT

SWAYING GRASSES ON A DARK METALLIC BRASS GREETING CARD COVER

 SWAYING GRASSES USED WITH PRESSED LEAVES AND MY 9"x12" stencil BOXED VINES

SWAYING GRASSES

The 2 artworks with dark brown backgrounds were created with light modeling paste and paints that I sprayed on immediately after spreading the paste across the stencil. This technique is demonstrated here--

http://heartworkbycecilia.blogspot.com/2014/11/modeling-paste-and-other-dimensional.html

One of these two dark-background greeting cards has a moon created with a  circle stencil, thick acrylic paint and a Sofft Art Sponge. 

Both of these dark backgrounds are a metallic dark brass, but the metallic sheen is not visible in the above photos. 

To see more art samples using my other 2 brand-new stencils, just scroll down to my Feb. 6 posts. 


You can find Swaying Grasses and the other 2 just-released stencils here --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/category-s/1832.htm 

COLLAGE PAPER (or WASTE NOT, WANT NOT)

In a related post, I show a 3D artwork created with my newly released 9"X12" stencil Tangled Pods, shown here --

That related post contains detailed instructions (with corresponding photos) for creating this piece:

My substrate for the above artwork was a picture-page from an old calendar.  The 3D base was created with matte gel medium (gloss gel medium would have worked, too.) The next step was to use a palette knife (or an old credit card) to spread the gel thru the openings of the Tangled Pods stencil.

What I didn't show in that related post was what I did with the gel-coated stencil.  Letting leftover gel dry on the stencil would have spelled disaster!  So I immediately lifted the stencil from the artwork, quickly turned it over, and pressed it (wet side down) onto another old calendar page -- thus creating a 3D reverse-print image.  After that, I pulled off the stencil to wash it.

The original reverse-print looked like this while the gel was still wet -- 

After the gel had dried to near-invisibility, this reverse-print paper became "catch-all" paper, used for cleaning my brushes of various acrylic paints as they were being used in another project.

Here are the results so far:

CLICK THIS IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT, TO BETTER SEE THE 3D TEXTURE.

What I plan now is to cut the paper abov into pieces for use in collage.

My brand-new 9"X12" Tangled Pods stencil is one of the most versatile I've ever created -- quickly becoming a favorite! 

Here, I've traced a portion of this stencil onto the cut-out bottom of a disposable foam plate --

My next step will be to use a ballpoint-like stylus to indent the outlines.  Then, this will be used as a printing plate.
Inspiration for my 9"X12" Tangled Pods stencil came from my seeing this tree --

http://lh2treeid.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

According to the above webpage, this tree goes by three names --

Sophora japonica;

Japanese Pagoda Tree;

Chinese Scholar Tree. 

As that webpage says, these seedpods resemble strands of pearls.  I agree!