…gelli on a plate…

If you’ve been around here for longer than about 5 minutes, you’ll know that when it comes to crafty adventures, I am nothing if not highly suggestible. I’m like Pavlov’s dogs, but with craft projects instead of bells. Just the merest hint of an idea, and I am off and racing and studiously avoiding the housework in favour of making a mess in my craft room.

And so it was, at the park yesterday, when a message came through. Pavlov herself, no less, was busy getting her art on while I was on mama duty and did I like her new gelli prints. Why yes, yes I did. And, lucky for me, guess what is next to the park? Our local indie cheap shop, who very conveniently sell Montmarte art supplies. You can see where this is going, right?

So. We wrap up at the park. Across the car park we all toddle, as I fend of comments from the kids. “Where are why going? Why are we going to the shops? What do we need? Why can’t you tell us what we are buying? Is is craft stuff? It’s craft stuff, isn’t it?” Yes, yes it is my darlings. In today’s homeschool curriculum, we are studying how to balance the budget when mummy catches an idea…

Sadly, no gelli plate was to be found. I did, however, find a set of pouring paints which I have been wanting to try forever, so…whoops, what’s that whipping past the scanner at the checkout? Not my self-control, surely.

At home, with the new pouring paints safely stashed away, I pulled up my blog search bar. Diving all the way back to 2014, when I made a gelli plate, and filmed it for And Sew We Craft, back when I was a monthly contributor. I took a quick photo of the ratios I used, and headed up to the kitchen. While the family had their lunch, I decided to forgo sustenance in favour of chasing this rabbit all the way down, and got busy making a gelli plate.

I added extra gelatine this time to get it super firm, and also included some glycerin that I skipped last time. I made my plate using 1/2 a cup of boiling water and a tablespoon of gelatin powder. I also added a swirl of glycerin, but being quite thin, it was starting to tear after 9 or 10 prints, so I probably wouldn’t bother with it next time, unless I was purposely making a thicker plate with the intent to keep it. Once it was all mixed up and I was happy that the powder was dissolved, I poured the mix onto a plate that had a lip enough lip to contain the mix, and popped it into the fridge Within an hour or so, it was ready, and I was off and printing.

It was super fun having a play with the plate and paint and stencils. I feel like I learnt a lot. I only printed on bog-standard printer paper for my first round of tests, so I didn’t get too precious about it and could just dive in. I trying different ways of masking and stencilling and blending the paints together – and I definitely need to use less paint next time!

I plan to do a lot more printing, and at this stage will continue using my home made plates. For approximately 30 cents a pop, for a plate I can then toss out when I’m done, it’s not a bad option, and also means I don’t have to find somewhere to store it. That’s a win for me!

My favourite print has been trimmed up since it dried, ready to pop into my 365 journal, and some final embellishments and journaling are all that is needed to finish off that page. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy (!! finally!!), so I’m hoping to get some progress made on a couple of camp gifts, and then get a new plate whipped up so I can stuck into journal catch up in between pulling prints and letting them dry. There’s two audio book sitting on my phone waiting for my attention, and Mr 11 is begging to bake some choc chip bikkies. It’s going to be a fabulous weekend to be cosy and crafty…my favourite kind!