Paper Arts Bulletin

I'm printing faster than I can scan and make blog posts.  I made a new stencil from Strathmore's 300 Series Printmaking paper. I used the same paper to make the prints.  The 300 series paper is 120 g/m 2 , which is just slightly heavier than the Pacon drawing paper I have used in previous test prints.  The trick to using relatively lightweight papers to make prints is to use very little paint (or ink) on your printing plate.   My favorite print, which is actually layers of ghost prints. Plan B print. Plan B prints are made by adding thick white paint to the printing plate. The first pull will be mostly white paint.  The second pull will bring most of the old paint off the Gelli plate. caption If you look closely, you will see there are three mask shapes. Combs and masks. What not to do:  This is what happens when you start with yellow ochre, overprint with quinacridone magenta, and finish with phthalo green.  Any two of those co...

Gelli Arts recently released some new printing combs .   I decided to make some prints using tools I already had on hand.  (Said tools were photographed but not uploaded.  Ahem.)  I used a Catalyst Contour C-22 tool , and two combing tools made from old gift cards. Several layers of ghost prints.  This is a print I made in the spring, during the Strathmore Online Workshop with Traci Bautista.    Green and gold paints combed and overprinted atop magenta and yellow paints. Simple gold over green.  One of my favorites. 

While this blog has not been a paper arts bulletin for a long time—maybe I should change the name—I do occasionally post about new things going on in the paper arts world.  Here are a  couple of things that are new or newish: Gelli Arts has just put out a new tool to go along with its popular printing plate—large combs with rounded or square teeth of various sizes and spacing.  Three combs come in each package, so you can't buy just one to try it out.  Suggested retail for each three-comb package is $20.99, so that is actually a good price as compared to Catalyst wedges, which typically retail for $7.00 to $10.00 each.  Here is a video about the new tools.  Ranger's Dina Wakley Media line recently released some new products, including a rectangular tool that combines a paint comb and a stencil. The tool has different comb styles on three sides and one straight edge. The straight edge can be used to quickly cover a substrate with gesso or...

Just a quick post with more shapes made on the Gelli plate.  Included some layered ghost prints, too.  The first four prints  are ghosts made were made on drawing paper.  The last two—one a ghost and the other a first pull—were printed on ordinary copy paper.  I used Liquitex Basics, Golden fluid acrylics, and Golden open medium.   

Just playing around with mixing colors and shapes on the Gelli plate.  Inspired by Jane Davies and Joan Gillman Smith (but nowhere near that good.)  A word to the wise. You've probably seen a lot of videos and pictorials on how to use the Gelli plate. I know I have. I've also been making prints for months and been mostly dissatisfied with the results.  A lot of the videos and tutorials I've seen show people putting several dollops of paint onto the Gelli plate. I was doing the same thing until just a few weeks ago. I've realized that I have been using waaaaaayyyy too much paint.   Of course, your mileage may vary, but if you want crisper images from your Gelli prints, try using far less paint than you have been.  For the 8 x 10 plate, I would suggest just a few drops* of fluid acrylics or one small dollop of soft-bodied tube acrylics, such as Liquitex student-grade paints. Add a little glazing medium or open medium to keep the paint wet. ...

Inspired by this post (and give-away) from the Gelli Arts blog, I decided to make a few prints using my Gelli plate and ordinary household items.  I'm a big believer in using what you have in paper arts, so that post is right up my alley.  For my prints, I used plastic wrap, wax paper, bubble wrap, a paper towel tube, and rubber bands wrapped around an acrylic stamping block to create texture.   By the way, if you want to enter the give-away on the Gelli Arts blog, hurry.  The deadline to enter is Tuesday, May 26, 2015 at 12:00 noon EDT.    Pictures of the supplies I used and the resulting prints are below. I used plastic wrap, wax paper, an empty paper towel roll, Golden fluid acrylic paints, and bubble wrap to make my first set of prints from household items. Supplies I used for the first series of prints.   First-pull prints overprinted on the same sheet of paper. I did not try to line up the print registration each ...