More Gelli-Art experiments

I posted here a few days ago about my new Gelli-Art printing plate, and wanted to keep you posted on my further experiments.  I started with acrylic artists' paints on day one.  Today, I did some experiments with Tulip fabric paints I had in my collection, and tomorrow I plan to try thickened dyes.  Also, I am using a stencil and some hand made stamps in today's experiments - the first day, I used some grasses and leaves collected from my yard.  Below are some pictures of my process and results today:

First, I prepared my work area, selecting what paints I might want to use, getting my tools out and creating a stack of fabric pieces to work with.

I dug out my stencils and stamps... even found one rubbing plate, although the others are hiding somewhere!

I decided to use some Tulip Neon Fabric paints in Yellow, Orange, Lime Green and Hot pink.  Did not know until after the first print that they have glitter in them!  Anyway, above is my first print using a stencil from The Crafters Workshop... nice, not too heavy in pattern, and I actually remembered to pull the ghost print (see left side of picture). 

I reloaded the plate, this time adding the hot pink, and selected one of my hand made stamps to do multiple stampings... see photo below for the finished print.

Added more paint, and used another hand made stamp

Love the colors on the stamp!  And darn it,  I forgot to pull a ghost print!  Just about this time, my camera told me to replace the batteries, and unfortunately, these paints dry really fast!  So All I got was the print from the plate.

Here are the first two prints... I like how both of them came out.

This one was disappointing, but it's because the paints dried so fast that they did not adhere well to the fabric... if you look closely, you will see that they are curling on the top of the print.  But I can't blame the plate for that! 

This is a closeup of the first print, to show off the ghost print.

After two days of using paints, I am looking forward to using thickened dyes tomorrow... they stay wet a lot longer, so I'm sure to get some interesting results without having to rush so much!  I have pre-soaked some cotton muslin in soda ash solution, and they will be dry soon.  And I have a fresh supply of thickener to mix the dyes with, so I'd better get to it so I will be ready for tomorrow's session!  Bye for now...

Batik... this year's project!

I have had batik in my project board for awhile now... I've been doing autumn leaves shirts for 4 years, and I love them, but I have wanted to broaden my horizons a little, and I decided this is the year. Yesterday, I cut a stencil of a dragonfly, and tried it out on both a t-shirt and a piece of muslin, both pre-soaked in soda ash solution and dried. In both cases, I traced the design on using regular pencil, then I waxed the design on. On the muslin, I added dye to the body and eyes with unthickened dye and an artist's paintbrush, then I brushed the dye on around the dragonflies, over the wings to pick up the divisions, and out toward the edges. I used 4-5 colors of dye, a couple of which I actually mixed and stored back in August! Amazing how well they hold their strength if they are stored in a cool spot! When I finished applying the dyes, I covered the muslin with plastic wrap and batched overnight.

Here's the muslin:

After I let the wax harden on the T-shirt, I scrunched the shirt into a small bin, then I poured over the dyes and let it sit for about an hour before I rinsed and washed. Here's the shirt:

I'm pleased with my start, and got busy this morning creating some more stencils. I'm also searching the internet for pre-cut stencils to see if I can find some I like. It is pretty time-consuming to cut the stencils, and although it goes faster if I cut them from card stock, I'm concerned that the card stock won't last very long before it starts to break down. At any rate, thi is definitely going to be my big project for the year, and probably beyond!