I use stencils to block and to transfer ink when I am making gelatin prints.
A traditional stencil is a hole in the stencil material, as you can see in the image below. To use these stencils, I would gently push ink through the holes.
And the resulting image would be and ink impression the shape of the hole.
The other kind of stencil that I use a lot with gelatin printmaking is a masking stencil. These kinds of stencils block the transfer of ink to the paper. These stencils below are types of masking stencils.
These stencils would create a “white” shape with ink being printed around the edge of the masking stencil.
This is a simple impression made with a masking stencil. The ink passes to the paper in the areas around the stencil.
This print is more complex but the image of the girl was still created with a masking stencil. It blocked the blue ink from printing in the area of the masking stencil.
Now to the most excited way that I use masking stencils with the gelatin plate. I use the stencil to block and transfer ink.
Ink naturally builds up on the back side of the masking stencil the you are gelatin printing. This leads to a lovely impression UNDER the masking stencil.
I embrace this lovely build up of ink to create multi colored impressions. If you would like to explore this process, then join me in the one weekend, online class, Hand Printed Cars + the gelatin plate.
hand printed cards online workshop with Linda Germain from Linda Germain on Vimeo.