Gelatin Printing with Old Gelatin
Would you consider gelatin printing with old gelatin? Don’t throw away your old and decaying gelatin plate. I love to use it when it starts to get all the little holes and cracks in it.
I can’t control how it falls apart. So sometimes it decays in a beautiful way and other times not so much. I like to do a lot of newsprint pick ups to absorb the slime and to get the plate ready for printing.
In the print above I used Daniel Smith water soluble Block Printing ink, blue with some black. I made the circles and the lines by “stamping” into the inked plate. Stamping lifts off some of the ink. I think I use a dress pattern wheel to make the dotted lines.
The white grasses where created by placing the grass on the plate. Notice that the grass is very thin and creates interesting negative space. Then place the paper on top and print with hand pressure. All the little holes, the subtle changes in blue/black color where created by the decaying gelatin plate.
If you would like to explore making and working with a gelatin plate over time, then you may be interested in the next session of Make Monotypes. Check out the details here.
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