Mimosa Again ...

Above is the lovely birthday card -- made by my friend Cindy Powell -- that arrived in today's mail. 

She created it using my 9"X12" stencil Mimosa 9 -- and as usual, I find that artists like Cindy do a better job of using my stencils than I do! 

Pulling Gelli Plate Prints ...



The prints above and below were made with my 9"X12" stencil Mimosa.

The print below was made with its corresponding smaller-sized stencil --

 -- Mimosa 6.

 Anyone unfamiliar with making Gelli Plate prints with stencils, just click on the Gelli Arts badge in the left column above.  Lots of ideas there!

Texture Prints with Stencils -- the Tool Makes Art and Becomes Art

Joan Bess is the person I thank for this technique.  I loved the concept she introduced so much that I decided to take it one step farther....  

Her 2014 post demonstrates using a Gelli Plate to create a textured paper that can be used not only as a printing tool, but also as a final artwork.

Using a squeeze bottle of textured paint and a sheet of paper, Joan opted for a freehand-drawn approach to making this tool.  

I decided to use stencils rather than a freehand approach, in my very first step.

First, I used masking tape to secure my 9"X 12" stencil Mimosa to a sheet of previously-painted-red newsprint. Then I began to outline the design with a watercolor pencil --



Above shows the stencil in full.

The above close-up shows the blue outlines as they are being drawn around each part of the design, by tracing the open edges of the stencil.

Above: The stencil has been removed; the watercolor pencil lines remain.

Above:  The outlining with textured paint has begun.  It's just a matter of following the lines drawn with watercolor pencil.  I felt no need to be exactly faithful to each of those original lines.

Above:  The textured outlines have been completed; now comes an important step --

--waiting for that textured paint to fully dry.  

Don't start printing with your Gelli Plate till you can raise your right hand and affirm on a Bible that the texture paint is DRY. 

Once I started printing with my Gelli Plate -- I used the 12" X 14" plate since my large Mimosa stencil measures 9"X 12" -- the process was quick and easy.  With a brayer, I spread acrylic paint over the plate, then pressed the textured paper face-down onto the wet paint.  When I pulled the paper up, it had collected some of the paint; it had also left an imprint on the Gelli plate.

I repeated this process several times with new layers of paint, continuing until I had pulled a number of prints. 

Having previously used the Gelli Plate with the Mimosa stencil itself -- not an outlined version created from the stencil -- I could immediately see that the two approaches had radically different results.

I'm pleased with the results I've achieved both the original way -- using the stencil itself -- and this new way, with the textured paint.

Some of the "new-way" prints are shown below.

Above is one of the original new-way prints.

Above:  This version started with the original green print.  After scanning the original into Photoshop, I altered its color blends.  Now, it will be printed out for use in an art journal alongside the original green print.

Likewise, the above pail blue print is the original pull.


And likewise, the purple version below was color-altered in Photoshop from a scan of the original pale blue print.

To show a comparison with the "old-way" Gelli Plate prints, created by using the stencil itself instead of a texture-outlined version, I'll include the images below --

For anyone puzzled by my term "the old way," I'm talking about brayering the Gelli Plate print with acrylic paint, then placing an original stencil onto the plate.  The stencil is then lifted, leaving its imprint on the plate.  Next, a sheet of paper is pressed onto the plate, and pulled.  The above two images were achieved this way.  Variety is the spice of life!

Last but not least, here is the paper I had treated with texture paint.  This is how it appears now that it has been used multiple times with the Gelli Plate.  It was a tool, but now it's artwork :

My 9"X 12" stencil Mimosa is available at www.StencilGirlProducts.com.
So is my 6"X 6" Mimosa, which fits either of the two smaller Gelli Plates.

Blue Goes Green

My May 8 post included a write-up on sun-prints.  One of those prints was created using my 9"X12" Mimosa stencil --

I liked it as it was, but I scanned it into my PC; then, with the magic of Photoshop, I altered its color --

I will print out the green version and use it in a collage, along with its original blue brother.

More Sun-Prints made with my Stencils

Sun-prints are fun!

In making them, the first step I took was to paint opaque paint over the stencils to be used.  The four shots below show two of my stencils -- Boxed Vines and Queen Anne's Lace -- while they are creating the prints on the sun-print paper.  Previously they had been painted with opaque green acrylic.  (Any opaque color will work.)

The three photos above show the sun-prints being made -- the top layer is clear acetate (you can see its borders); the next layer is the paint-coated stencil; the bottom layer is the sun-print paper.
Below is a sun-print created with my 9"X12" stencil Queen Anne's Lace--

I'd love to say that the faint double-image and the right-side tone-shift were planned, to create an artsy effect, but the truth is they were not.  These prints were all made on a sunny but windy day and I was just re-learning how to do them, having been originally taught years ago by my friend Mary Ann Russo. 

When making this batch, I had forgotten that the stencil and sun-print paper should be kept in the dark until it is ready to be placed into direct sunlight.  This can be done if you create a "sandwich" with sheets of glass or Plexiglas as the "bread" and the sun-print paper, under the stencil, as the "meat."

But I plan to go for the artsy multiple-exposure look, again -- on purpose, next time.  I'm going to create multiple exposures on each sheet of sun-print paper, so I probably won't use Plexiglas at all.  I will just keep moving the stencil across the paper as each exposure happens.  It takes only a few minutes, on a day with bright overhead sun. 

After the last exposure, the paper is to be placed in a tub of water and swished around, then laid flat to dry.  I dried mine in a shaded area.  After that water-rinse, they should not continue to change with light exposure, but I chose a shaded area just to be on the safe side.

The sun-print paper that I chose -- the only one I could find that would fit my 9"X12" stencils -- was Super Sunprint Kit by Lawrence Hall of Science.

Below are the sun-prints as they were spread out to dry:

Above:  created with my 9"X12" Boxed Vines stencil.

Above:  created with my 9"X12" Mimosa stencil.

Above:  created with my 9"X12" stencil Queen Anne's Lace.

Note:  It's certainly possible to make sun-prints with stencils that have not been pre-coated with opaque paint.  But the resulting images will have less contrast between the exposed areas and the unexposed areas.  One fun thing to try would be to spatter or streak opaque paint across a stencil and then use it to make a sun-print.  This would result in an exposure that has a hit-and-miss, artsy look. Try it!