Stretching with Gelatin Printing

It was raining outside yesterday, & the nasturtiums were collecting little globes  of water. They glistened like diamonds.
Today I posted the next challenge word on the Fiberactions blog. I decided on STRETCH, so that’s what I attempted to do a bit of today. I dug out my copy of Rayna Gillman’s book, & read up on how to do Gelatin Printing. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try & never got around to doing.

She said to use an aluminum foil pan, which I don’t have, so I dug out an old Tupperware container, that’s big & square. I lined it with Parchment Paper to make it easy to get the gel plate out.

I mixed 2 1/2 times the recipe to fill the bottom of the container.

It worked like a charm. The plate came out easily.

I did a second one in a small square silicone cake pan, but it broke when I was removing it. I still used it though. The curvy lines are from the pan.

I stepped outside & picked a few leaves from my yard.

I printed 4 to 6 layers of paint on each piece of fabric. I enjoyed the process, but feel I can get similar results just with paint & stamping, & brayers, without the gelatin, so I don’t know how often I will bother to make the gelatin plates. I did save them & will probably do more later.

I was using Dynaflow Textile Paints, & tried “Sun Printing” with my Ott light.

It actually worked, though maybe not as strong a print as it might have been in actual sunlight.

The last is a green fabric, that started out with the same print as the purple on the left. I gelatin printed using a mesh bag for resist, & then did a little stamping with a rubber stamp for more texture.

I’m going to let these rest tonight then see if I want to do more “stretching”.