How to: Gelli Plate Printing

Some of today's prints drying, with added slipper on bottom left!

One of my favourite techniques at the moment is gelli-plate printing.  I’ve been teaching it a lot recently and whenever I have a spare hour, it is definitely my preferred way of experimenting creatively. 

Applying paint with foam stamper

A gelli plate is a soft surface to monoprint on.  You can make your own using gelatine, but I prefer to use one made from some kind of silicone made by Gelli Arts.  It’s disadvantage is that you don’t control the size, but it doesn’t go off, can be reused endlessly and doesn’t need to be kept in the fridge.  Also it is vegetarian.  Are you sold yet?  They are not cheap, but I think having to keep buying packets of gelatine and other stuff to make one would end up more expensive in the long run.

Gelli plate ready to print, with paint and leaves on it

I really enjoy developing work using the gelli plate, using ‘what if’ principles.  Generally, the first couple of prints are poor in a session, then I get into it and change the paint colours or the objects I’m mark making with.  So far, my favourites are stencils, the plastic netting from orange bags, foam stampers and empty tape rolls.  Oh and of course, leaves.  You get fabulous prints from leaves.

First print on left and how the gelli plate looks after it on the right

Today I spent an hour playing with a foam stamper, five colours of paint and two sprigs of bamboo. 

Second print on left and how the gelli plate looks after it on the right

I mainly printed on hand dyed fabric and got lovely effects on scrim and woollen felt.  I wasn’t as convinced by the silk habutai, but I think it was partly due to the background colour rather than the fabric.  Of course, you get wonderful effects on cotton, which is what I usually use.

Printing from the inked up leaves

Generally, the second print is better than the first as it is more delicate.  I also was getting a third print from the bamboo leaves themselves, which were gorgeous.

Printing on scrim

Gelli plate printing also works really well on paper and on Friday 4 December, I have a one day workshop on gelli plate printing and making artists books.  

There is just one space left if you are interested.  The theme is up to you, but it could be a special way of making unique Christmas cards.

Printing on felt

Now I’ve just got to find time to make something with these fabric bamboo prints!

Unsuccessful printing on silk habutai

Starting at the beginning - my next piece

Ink wash drawing of a teasel

A few months ago I was invited to join the exhibiting group, Turning Point.  I was very flattered as I love seeing their work in various locations, such as the Smith in Stirling.  Of course, I accepted, especially as it adds a new challenge for me – making work to a theme and size set by another.  The first piece I need to make is to be inspired by a saying.  

Flowers

We had lots of family fun coming up with inappropriate sayings, but finally I settled on the William Morris quote:

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”

Another flower

I’ve been taking lots of photos of nature recently and I thought this could tie in nicely with a quilt inspired by nature.  This also conveniently links in with the nature course I am running over this year.  So far, I have taken lots of photos, 

Lovely flowers from one of the students, Chrystine

looked at lots of Morris wallpaper on Pinterest, 

My pinterest board

made lots of sketches 

Blind drawing of leaves

and dyed and printed fabric green.

Breakdown printed fabric

 

Initially I was thinking of something directly Morris inspired, but I’m not convinced that this suits me as all my drawings keep going looser and looser. 

I didn’t think it would be a photo realistic quilt either, and that has been confirmed as I’ve gone along – my drawings started from the flowers and have become more imaginary and I use the shapes which appealed the most. 

One of the more recent drawings

So now I’ve done my research and I have a reasonable idea in my head as to how it is going to look.  Having dyed lots of fabric for the background – it was always going to be green! – I just need to get started on the sampling.  

Some of the green fabric dyeing - this shade will not be the dominant colour!

I always tell my students to sample as you will end up with a more interesting work, having worked through any issues in advance, but sometimes I still rush in...  This time I’m going to be good!

I love the dew on the cobwebs in Autumn

Out & About: Chateau de Chaumont

One of the best things of holidays for me is discovering new places and the other week in the Loire Valley I discovered a real gem.

I’ve been to the Loire Valley many times over the years and have visited many of the chateaux – Chenonceaux is a real favourite.  For some reason, we had not visited Chaumont in the past – what a mistake!  When I saw in the leaflet that it had special gardens and contemporary art, it leapt to the top of the list for this trip.  And it was well worth it.  It was an amazing place.

Each year it has a garden festival, with lots of individual gardens on a theme, selected from many entries from all over the world.  The theme this year was ‘Gardens of Collectors: Extraordinary Gardens’.  They were fantastic, in terms of layout, plantings, gorgeous flowers and, in many of them, for their sheer ingenuity.  They truly were gardens as an art form.  As I am running a class based on nature from September (still a couple of places left), this was more inspiration than I could cope with.  I took lots of pictures of beautiful blooms, architectural leaves as well as general scenes.  Between the plants, art and of course the kids, I took over 400 photos in the one day.  I was especially impressed by the gardens which made me think.  

There was one set up as an art gallery, but instead of a canvas on the wall, there was a hole through which you could see the plants.  

There was another which looked rather unkempt and over grown but the actual garden was secret, only seen reflected in the mirrors on the back wall, so you could only get glimpses of it.  

A third was set up as a dyer’s garden, with information on plant dyes and hanks of wool hung out to dry.  It had a wall of glass jars which from the outside looked like dirty glass.  However inside the little shelter, these glasses glowed with the colours of the dyes, like shining jewels.

My enjoyment of the gardens was increased as I was reading the novel ‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ at the time, by Tan Twan Eng.  It explained some concepts of Japanese gardening, including that of ‘borrowing space’ from the surroundings to make the garden feel bigger.  Also the importance of everything being absolutely right: the right number of stones, in the right place at the right height - something that carries through in all parts of art.  It is a lovely, if somewhat melancholy book and well worth reading.

As well as this garden festival, there were many more gardens, but we ran out of time to see them all as I also wanted to see the art. 

Outdoors in the grounds of Chaumont, there were lots of installations of contemporary art.  Some are temporary for this season, other part of the collection which seems to be growing all the time.  It also appeared that every possible building on the estate was used as an art venue, including the chateau itself.  We were very excited to see some photographs by Naoya Hatakeyama, having been really taken by his pictures of underground tunnels in Tokyo which we saw years ago in London.  These ones were part of a photography exhibition on the beautiful but terrifying effects of man on the environment.  It’s amazing how lush industrial waste can look.

 

The primary artist for this year is Gabriel Orozco.  He was taken with the layers of peeling wallpaper in the private rooms of the last owners of the chateau.  These are now bare apart from some areas of wall where you can see the traces of the previous interior design.  Just like Orozco, I took lots of photos of the walls.  There was a definite feel of textile artist inspiration to them!  

Orozco however, enlarges details of the peeling walls onto canvas using a spray technique and oil paper.  It gives the canvases a ghost-like effect, with a sense of the pattern almost sliding off the canvas.  These were hung in these empty, run down rooms adding to the impression they made.

The other principle highlight for me (although I loved lots more) was seeing the gigantic El Anatsui installation in a stable.  It was enormous, going round three walls of this huge room.  The scale was amazing and you felt enveloped by it, with its subtle shades of can shimmering as you looked.  According to the catalogue, he needed 40 assistants to help make it and it took a dozen students to help install it.  It was truly monumental. 

So it was a truly inspiring day out for everyone, including a great discussion about whether some of the pieces were actually art or not.  We saw in the information that the gardens are open at night from 10 to midnight lit by lots of tiny lights and we would have loved to have returned, but the kids are just that little bit too young to enjoy the experience so late.  But we will definitely return another year and hopefully go for a night visit then.  If you are even vaguely in the area, I can’t recommend a day out there highly enough.  Do go if you get the chance.

Just to make you jealous: a wonderful summer holiday, including drawing

A bee enjoying the lovely flowers.  I like taking photos of them but can't name any plants

We’re just back from our annual summer holiday, which was wonderfully relaxing and full of sunshine and I’m now a bit daunted by all that is coming up over the next few months.  It’s all very exciting: I’m running a drop-in art activity based on Greek myths this weekend at Holmwood House, a National Trust for Scotland property in Glasgow; I have work in an exhibition in Stirling opening on 1^st August; I’m going to the Festival of Quilts; I’ve got to get my artwork ready for the European Patchwork Meeting in September and of course, I have my classes to plan and run.  I could really use another few hours in the each day!

Adding the final details to a tree and sunset

Packing for our holiday I was getting convinced it was a bad move to take two weeks off as there is so much on, but I think that really means that the holiday was needed.  We spent a few days in Legoland for the kids (and R) and then we went camping in France.  We visited some amazing chateaux; I will write a separate post about Chaumont as it was such an inspiring place to visit for all the contemporary art on display – I really can’t recommend it highly enough.  

The food was pretty fabulous too

We also went swimming in the sea and played on the beach.  As we live in cold, wet and damp Scotland, part of the attraction of heading south is enjoying some nicer weather for a while and this year we were not let down – two weeks of hot and sunny weather.  Just perfect!

Kids hard at work drawing using my Inktense pencils

I took some paper and my Inktense pencils so I could do some sketching whilst I was away and one of the highlights for me was all three children decided to draw too and we spent some lovely hours in the evening drawing together.  It all sounds idyllic and of course, it wasn’t all the time, but having all the kids enjoying drawing (especially as one has virtually no interest in art whatsoever) is a memory I will treasure.  I didn’t even ask them to draw, they asked me if they could!

I think this started out as a volcano, but was changed along the way

As one of the new courses I am running is 'being inspired by nature', I also had a great time taking loads of inspiring photos, mainly close ups of flowers.  Looking at them now on the computer screen some of the colours look quite unbelievable and this is before I have played with them in image manipulation software.

Back home, with the piles of washing and Scottish rain pouring outside, our holiday already seems light years away (we got back less than 24 hours ago!), but it is nice to be back in the studio, with music blaring and two helpers helping me prepare the things for Holmwood.  If you are in the Glasgow area, why not come and visit Holmwood on Saturday?  There are other activities as well as art and there is also a craft fair.  Hope to see you there.

In my studio: artist's book in progress

Pine Page

Whilst I was away in the depths of the North York Moors the other week, I decided I had to make some art.  It was wonderful staying in the woods, feeling totally surrounded by nature and seeing the effects of the weather subtly changing the landscape over the space of a week, as more trees lost leaves and the colours turning more brown.

Moss page

 

I had taken a small, long, narrow sketchbook with me, bought at the Festival of Quilts from Oliver Twists, which I had already painted with some leftover blue and yellow procion dyes (not very natural, I know, but if I’m honest, I like my home comforts and will never be a complete nature-girl). 

The bound sketchbook

As the kids explored the little stream and how to dam it, I collected as many different leaves, berries and grasses as I could find.  I bound them into my sketchbook and left them.  My binding wasn’t terribly tight, so when I got home, I pressed in R’s Black & Decker workbench.  It has left a great imprint on the corrugated cardboard cover.

Rowan berries

Being rather impatient and slightly concerned that it would be rotting rather than pressing in our frozen garage, I rescued it last week and had a look at the result.  As you can see from the photos, there has not been much colour transfer, but I have lovely indentations shaped like the pine kernels (not sure what the right word is – can someone tell me?).  The moss also sucked the dye from the page, giving a beautiful effect.  It hasn’t given me a finished sketchbook, but it is a great step on the way to an artist’s book.

Fern on page

 

Effects of brambles

Out & About: North York Moors

Scotland has very different school holidays to England and, I imagine, to the rest of the world, so last week was our ‘October week’, or half term holiday.  I believe that most of England still has a week to go.  Rather than stay at home and get depressed at all the things I need to do, but am not doing, such as tidying up, cleaning, repairing old computers etc, I took the kids down to the North York Moors for the week.  It’s an area I have never visited before and we all greatly enjoyed it.  The final count was three abbeys (Whitby, Rievaulx and Byland); two castles (Pickering and Helmsley), two fish and chip meals out, some rather nice cakes and tearooms, one return steam train journey, one run around on a beach, one folk museum (Ryedale) and lots of forest walks.  It was a lovely time, made even better when R joined us for the weekend.  And for all this activity, it was very relaxing.  Surprisingly I hardly read at all (I think I read over 10 books in our two week summer holiday...) and didn’t do much sewing.  It was more fun just cuddling the kids on the sofa in front of the TV in the evening than stitching.

 

 

Luckily the children love exploring ruins as much as I do, so they were happy running around them as I played around with the new camera settings on my phone.  We all liked making panoramas! 

I really enjoyed investigating the woods and taking close up photographs.  I’ve also pressed lots of leaves and berries into a sketchbook to see if they will colour the pages.  Fingers crossed that it doesn’t go mouldy first...

We’re all back to normal today and it is nice to be back in the studio working whilst still ignoring all the house things I need to do.