Gelli on the (printing) plate

After buying a Gelli plate a couple of years ago, I finally got around to finding some time to have a play with it. The warm weather meant that acrylic paints were drying too quickly, so I used my Caligo relief inks with extender instead. Results were mixed - knowing when to stop seems to be the key… one layer too many and the whole print is ruined. As with everything in life, the prints were improved with a dash of fluorescent pink ink on the final layer. Trimming down the prints, I was left with a pile of colourful strips. Turns out these are excellent collage material (and I prefer them to the actual prints). So I now have a stash of colourful papers - some will definitely benefit from some rubber stamped additions. As long as I know when to stop...

Stamping sampling

Interesting to see the different results from using the same tiled stamps as a base, and then ‘accessorising’ with other hand-cut rubber stamps.

First stencil prints

Four colour stencil print onto plywood

The original stencils before printing

A really enjoyable couple of hours printing at the Folk House stencil evening class… I adapted my 'pot plant' linocut design to make a simple four colour stencil print. Interesting to see how the colour (Caligo safe wash ink) stays saturated on the plywood. I prefer the build up of texture on the paper prints though - it gives the image an extra dimension that's often missing from lino prints. By varying the direction and pressure of rolling, it's possible to differentiate between the foreground and background. The working life of one stencil is obviously limited - I did five prints from these stencils, but I think you could possibly push it to a run of ten prints.

Stencil scamps

Working out stencil print colour combinations for this week's evening class...

Printing by numbers

Week three of the stencil monoprint evening class was a little more out of my comfort zone. One of Sophie's drawings was used as a basis for everyone in the class to create a multi-layered stencil print - really surprising how different they all ended up looking. I found it quite a challenge working on a predetermined image, making decisions on colour and composition as each stencil was cut. However, it was really interesting to see how quickly you can build quite a complex print from a sketch, and also that there's room for a bit improvisation if things don't go quite to plan (see layers of foliage, and unwanted ink splotch that became a bird). 

Second week of stencilling

Experimenting with oil-based ink - richer colours and better levels of transparency. It’s all getting a little bit ‘Very Hungry Caterpillar’… childhood influences obviously run deep!

Stencilicious

Just started a new evening class at the wonderful Folk House in Bristol - ‘Monoprinting with Stencils’ run by Sophie Rae. It was a really enjoyable first week, getting stuck in straight away. Just basic shapes with water-based ink, but I was amazed at the variety of tone and texture you can get with just using a roller. Lots of possibilities, but my first thought is that this would be an ideal method for printing patterned endpapers.