What is Gelli Arts and Gelli Plate Printing?
As soon as I type this, I have to go into my document and add the word Gelli to my dictionary!
Gelli Arts is the name of a company who created this fascinating way of Monoprinting without a press. Monoprinting is a type of print making with the intent to make unique prints and may explore an image serially. A monoprint is a single impression of an image from a reprintable block such as metal or glass plates. What Gelli Arts did was create a gelatinous slab or printing plate that is made of materials that are non-toxic, latex and silicone free and use no animal by-products.
What is the Process?
You use the plate to put paint on it, roll out the paint, and then add your design and then put a piece of paper or fabric on it. When you pull of the paper, your design is a mirror image of what you had on your plate.
You can add words but those words have to be mirror images for it to display properly.
What are these plates?
Since Gelli Arts created these plates, others have come along, and crafters state you can create your own plates. It is true you can make them yourself; it requires glycerin and gelatin plus water and a pan. It takes several hours to create one, and it may come out of the pan correctly or not. I will teach you how to make one in the class. Once you have that plate, you can spend time with the design itself.
The best is when you can layer and layer for a multi-dimensional creative product.
The best part about this is you can use acrylic paints of all different grades, from the cheaper ones in Dollar Tree to the professional ones at a high-end artist store.
My workshop on Gelli Plate printing is coming up on President’s Day, February 21, 2022. Sign up for the class and come away with some beautiful, artistic printing.
