Are you gelli?

I decided to have a go at making some Gelli Plate mono prints at home using gelatine.

My daughter and I mixed a tin of gelatine with water, sieved, and set it in a circular cake tin. I'd let to cool somewhat so she didn't get burnt here.

I left it to set over night, but didn't get a chance to try printing until a week later. By that time it had mould growing on it, and our kitten, strangely attracted to it, had attacked it a few times (I guess it is made of meat product!)

Interested in trying a few different techniques, I used the hagged little plate anyway.

I'm interested in following through on the idea of Afghan mountains and the discourse of the natural and military elements interacting.

So firstly foliage from the garden was tested.

I found gentle hands were the best kind of barons or rollers!

I want to experiment with these military stencils that are used to mark maps for military operations and plans. I am interested in how their symbols overlay a map to represent actions and different weapons and identities.

The stencils belonged to my late husband and so these items are somewhat sentimental to use.

Disappointingly the most interesting stencil was the thickest, and even using thin, wet Japanese paper wasn't enough to transfer a lot of the image.

However, I'd like to use this thicker stencil for a surface for frottage (rubbing) the prints to create a more complex image with the final prints.

Hand in glove with the Afghan imagery is the mountains. I'd hoped to create some mountain ranges such as what printmaker and designer, Kim Herring, displays on her website. I played with ripped paper and different colours - yellow, magenta, purple, but my results were a bit murkier than I'd have liked.

Messy outlines on the stencil prints, but I'm happier with these. They look pretty interesting.

I've got these prints pressed under a weight currently, but what I'd like to do is collage them with frottage elements too (I'm inspired by the amazing rubbings of artist Katrin von Maltzahn) to create mountain scapes.

Check out my gallery page soon!