Printmaking Spree

Sometimes a girl just has to break out the gelli plate and play.

I have had a bit of a print making spree lately and have been working with a limited palette each time and trying to do as many different things as can in each session.

It is so much fun and so relaxing and I love the results.

I have been working in long strips that I then fold into pages and will eventually bind them together into an art journal, very much inspired by Teesha Moores Amazing 16 page journals. At the moment though I am really enjoying working in the loose leaf format.  Thanks to my friend Maisy for giving me the idea.

I have found it easy to grab a few supplies and a few pages and take them with me when I need to wait at places, with the backgrounds already done I often find something inspiring to start me off or I just find a background that suits my purpose.

Printmaking in the ART BOX at Wooli

I am offering another free workshop at Wooli on Saturday afternoon,

in the Art Box.

We will be getting all painty making trifold prints.

So dont wear your good clothes.

We will be creating monoprints  on a gelatin plate using child safe acrylic paints 

and layering different colours on top of each other

 to create colourful and unique pieces. 

The gelatin plate lends itself to creative experimentation and play

and along the way we will be learning about 

positive and negative prints as well as ghost prints.

The space inside the box is set up perfectly for a friendly little group 

and  it is situated right on the river at Wooli at the skate park.

We start at 3:30 and I would love to see you there.

Asha's art workshop

I have a special little friend,

 I have known her since she was a baby,

 in fact I could of quite happily brought her home and kept her,

 I still could. 

Her name is Asha 

and she wanted to do some art with me,
she wanted to do printmaking and book making,

and she wanted to share it with her friends, 

so she gathered a group 

and we enjoyed a weekend of printmaking and book making 

and they all worked really hard 

and went home with something beautiful  and unique,

something they made with their own hands.

I have youth art classes running at the moment doing printmaking, stamp making and bookmaking. We make art and have fun at the Grafton Art Club on Wednesday afternoons. I still have a couple of places available, contact me at rivergirlart@bigpond.com if you would like more information.

Art Journaling when you are sick.

I am usually a pretty healthy and busy woman but have recently been sick for a couple of months, once I watched all the documentaries and art videos and music videos on my lap top in my endless days of being in bed I was bored and I needed to journal.

I was limited in what I could do though and lacking inspiration.

I didn't want to have paints and water jars in my bed 

and I didn't want to have to keep getting out of bed to clean things.

But I did want to exercise my little creativity I still had, 

art heals and it always makes me feel better.

So endless hours of worrying about the bush fires ravaging NSW and  looking at facebook turned up some words and quotes I wanted to play with and my waste paint journal has lots of yummy pages prepped and ready for the next step.

With just some paint pens, gel pens and markers I could write on my pages and I had all of these words so I didn't even have to think too much about things. Just play with freedom and it made me happy and distracted me. 

Some of my pages in this journal have had opening pages added and when I found a theme running through the words inspiring me I grouped them all together under post cards and opening pages.

I have so appreciated being able to just play, appreciated my already prepped pages, my lap top connecting me to the world and  the moments when I was up to sitting.

Art really is a healer.

Cleaning Up after a big Gelli Plate session

Have you joined in with the gelli plate printing fun?
I have  been loving mine so much I have bought a whole class set and am now teaching with them.

That also means a class set of tools to use for printmaking and that means piles pf painty equipment to clean regularly, so I have been getting plenty of practice.

I have a shallow plastic box that I collect all the paint covered brayers and stencils and punchinella and everything else we use in and transport it home. When I get home I fill it with water till it covers everything and then I leave it to soak over night.

The next day I bring everything to the sink and use an assortment of tools to clean things up. My fingers and running water can remove quite a lot after a good soak

An old tooth brush is soft and perfect for getting a lot more paint removed, especially from little holes.

Both sides always need cleaning after youth art classes, at home I  only need to clean very rarely as I manage to get most of the paint onto my work.

I also use an old glass chopping board on an angle under the tap as a flat surface to gently scrub the stencils on, it also means I don't need to bend over the sink quite so much.

Stubborn bits can be gently scrubbed with a scoring pad.

A final rinse, and its ready for the nest class/

I dry them on old nappies from when my boys were babies.

Now the gelli plates themselves, I don't soak them overnight.

They go into the sick with some dish washing liquid and warm water for a few minutes soaking.

Most of the paint comes off with gentle rubbing with my fingers but a make up sponge is very gentle and assists with any stubborn paint.

I then rinse them in clean cool water and they dry on the nappies as well. Every few weeks I follow these steps with a gentle wipe with baby oil to remove the staining in the gelli plates, this is not really needed though as the staining does not affect the gelli plates usage at all.

Then its back into my printmaking box and I am ready to go again.

How do you clean your printmaking equiptment?

Working with Little People

I just love sharing my passion with kids.

I love sending them off with something special, something unique, something they have created.

I love their joy and smiles.

I love their freedom and abandon 

I love their trust and openness 

and I love it extra when they bring their mum who is an incredibly talented photographer. Thank you so much  for these gorgeous images Toni Hutchison 

Gelli Plate

Like everyone in the mixed media world I too have succumbed to the gelli plate madness, oh how did we live without them? 

I have done so many delicious prints I will just share a few.

Gelli printing is so fun and I love the pages I am creating. 

I will be sharing some of the things I do with my gelli prints as well.