Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Week TWENTY SEVEN - finally!! Gelli plate printing using commercial and homemade plates

Hi everyone, such a looong time since you last saw me here. Yes? So sorry to have abandoned you and my only excuse is life! However I am back and plan to put a Playdate up every once in a while (and hopefully more often than that), so check back here or on the Facebook page for updates.

Today I am talking about Gelli plates. The latest craze that I am sure most of you have heard about. If not, go to Youtube to catch up on what the fuss is about. While I had been hankering for one for quite a while, they are a little on the pricey side, so I didn't jump right in. However I gave in a month or so ago and purchased a medium size 6” X 6” plate and I have to saw I am already HOOKED! Such fun and messy enough to keep me happy. LOLS Some examples of my playing below.


However then I REALLY started wanting a larger one (of course!), but really couldn't justify spending the bigger $ for another. SO I decided to give the homemade ones a spin. Gelatine printing has been around as long as most of us and probably longer, so lots of info on the net. The downside has always been that the homemade ones only last a couple of weeks and must be kept in the fridge. However there are now several recipes for “permanent” ones which don't require refrigeration around so I decided it was worth a play. The recipe for the one I settled on is here
http://www.bloombakecreate.com/2014/08/homemade-permanent-gelatin-plate/

In Australia it is pretty easy to get all of the ingredients although isopropyl alcohol and glycerin can both be a bit pricey. I decided to use a bottle of cheap vodka instead and got my glycerine from the medical isle in the supermarket. I learned from the comments on the page that you can get it in bulk from soap making supplies a LOT cheaper and can also use just 1½ cups of glycerin and eliminate the alcohol altogether. I think I will try that next time.

I poured it into a deepish plastic tray and it set up pretty quickly in the fridge. So I then unmolded and had a ton of fun printing for a couple of hours! I have to say that it performed pretty much the same as my commercial Gelli plate. Great!! However, the bad news was that it unfortunately cracked on a corner after this first use. I felt it was because it didn't have much in the way of support once unmolded. It is definitely NOT as firm as the commercial plates although it has a very similar feel.

However, no biggie if this does happen as you can simply throw in into the microwave, re-melt and remould! This time I thought about leaving it in the tray mould, but knew that would make it pretty hard to use unless I filled it up almost to the top which would require a whole lot more mixture than I had. I needed a quite shallow container that I could leave it in, was easy to store and would stand up to the use. Then I hit upon the answer. LIDS! I could fill the lid of a tupperware plastic type container and I would not have to unmould at all. So I ended up with two plates this time. The lid from a large container, (a little bigger than A4) and the lid from a round take out container which makes circular prints as shown below. The print on right is the first pull and on the left is the second. Plate shown above them.


Happy, happy, happy! If these too break down, I will simply melt in the container and let set again. Easy peasy......

Have a wonderful Christmas Season everyone! P.S. This one is a gelli print too.....

Sunday, August 5, 2012

and the latest news..........

Sorry guys but l have neglected to update you all here. After recovering from flu which actually took about 6 weeks, I BROKE my right wrist!! Yes, I AM right handed..... so once again PlayDATES have to take a back seat. Please hope, pray and keep everything crossed for me that this is the END of my spate of bad luck. Meanwhile please do browse back through the 25 PlayDATES already published here and take the opportunity to catch up on any you might have missed. I do plan on continuing once recovered but it could take a while longer than the year I had planned on......

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Week TWENTY SIX - artist DOWN!!

I have been sick with the flu for the whole of the week and lost voice on day two. It's winter here in Australia and just about everyone is coughing and sneezing. It's a particularly nasty flu this year, so we are being told, with a racking cough that can hang on for weeks. So, dear PlayDATERS, there is no PlayDATE this week and not sure how long it will be before I recover enough to play again. Upside is that I am spending a lot of time catching up on other's classes, surfing the web and reading...............

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Week TWENTY FIVE - Lettering



MORE LETTERING RESOURCES

Letter Playground - very interesting and inspirational gallery of doodled letters
Free graffiti alphabet stencils
Fab Pin interest page devoted to lettering (I think you need to join Pin Interest but it's worth it!)

............and some more fabulous lettering videos. One from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and two from Teesha Moore. ENJOY!








Saturday, June 9, 2012

Week TWENTY FOUR - marbling resources


Isn't this just a gorgeous example of marbling???? {{{sigh}}}.....Lots more practice needed. Like about a hundred years I think!! LOLS

As I need to take a break from video PlayDATES, I am giving you some relevant links to interesting sites on marbling this week. This has taken quite a bit of research as instructions are not easy to find. Hope you enjoy - even if you just look! And be sure to watch this Youtube. It's AMAZING!!!

There are some comprehensive instructions for various traditional marbling patterns here.
Top pic is Dutch Marble and below it is Antique Marble



Here you will find some beautiful examples of vintage and modern marbling patterns such as two of my favourites - the Turkish combed pattern shown below or the gorgeous Blue Shell pattern also pictured