Art Day: Printmaking Without a Press

 
When I was in art school one of my favorite ways to make art was with printmaking.  And one of my favorite types of prints to make was a painterly technique which involved using 3 plexiglass plates to make monotypes.   Each plexiglass plate would be rolled with a color of ink and then printed on the same piece of paper.   Before printing, you would wipe away places on the plates where you didn't want that color to print.  Or you could use sticks or other means to draw into the ink before printing.  This process required a printing press that costs thousands of dollars and lots of chemicals and a space to put a giant printing press in.  

We are not doing that at my house because I have no printing press and no space to put one of those big bad babies.  But today we are going to make prints with another mom and her son using gelatin plates. 

Monotypes are one of a kind prints, and gelatin plates are printing plates that are made of gelatin.  The squishy-ness of the gelatin plates means you can apply the paper on top of the plate to create a print, and use hand pressure or a roller to print it.

My son and I had an interesting time yesterday making the gelatin plates.  Let's just say this process has a slime factor involved.  I used directions by Linda Germain.  Please visit Linda's blog for more information, she has all the videos of the process embedded on her blog.

Here are pictures of our process for Art Day.  This is total play day for moms and our kids - all about learning a new technique.   I loved printmaking when I was in school, and am excited to try a form of printmaking that doesn't require a press. 

Thank you to Linda Germain for putting instructions and videos of this printing with gelatin plates online.   Please visit her blog for more information about the process.  Also, she gives lessons in the Massachusetts area. Visit Linda Germain's blog


And also thank you to Linda Packard for mentioning this process on her workshop blog.  For those of you in the Bangor, Maine area, Linda provides art workshops on different art techniques.  See her blog for Linda Packard's art workshops.


3 comments:

Linda Packard said...

Thanks so much for the mention and the links, Dixie. Looking forward to see you day's prints. I just love gelatin monotypes. And what a great way to spend a snowy day with the kids.

Michelle said...

Dixie,
This looks like so much fun! I can't wait to see what you create with your friend! Playdates are so much fun!!

McNally School said...

Ooo! Another idea for a class for my kids' co-op. Printmaking would be a fantastic class. So cool!


"Do not let what you cannot do
keep you from doing what you can do."

John Wooden