Now that summer is well and truly under way in New England, the trees are filled with juicy leaves. That means gelli plate printing time!
Materials
I use the following materials in my leaf prints:
- Gelli plate (I prefer the 8″ x 10″ size)
- 4″ Rubber brayer
- Palette knife
- Golden Open acrylic paint (3 primary colors plus black and white)
- Drawing paper
- White tissue paper (cheap gift wrapping paper is fine)
- Surface to mix and roll out paint, such as plexiglass
- Cloths to clean up
- Scratch paper
This is the way I create the prints:
Background
- Mix up a light color paint using the palette knife on the plexiglass surface.
- Apply paint to the gelli plate with the brayer.
- Lay down a sheet of paper, lightly rub with hands and pull up print.
- Lay down second sheet of paper for a second or ghost print.
- Use found objects to add texture to the painted gelli plate before pulling the prints, if desired.
- Create about a dozen backgrounds.
Middle Layer
- Mix up a medium toned paint color on the plexiglass surface.
- Apply paint to the gelli plate with the brayer.
- Lay down a pleasing combination of leaves.
- Lay down a dried light background paper, lightly rub with hands and pull up the negative print.
- Remove the leaves, lay down a second light background paper and pull up the positive print.
- Repeat with all your background sheets.
- Once dried, print negative prints on top of the positive prints and vice versa.
Final Layer
- Apply a dark paint to the gelli plate and add your focal leaf.
- Lay down white tissue paper and remove the excess dark paint.
- Leaving the leaf in place, lay down a second piece of tissue paper and remove the rest of the paint, carefully pressing around the leaf.
- Remove the leaf and print this final leaf onto the pages created above.
Printable Directions
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.
