Gelli Printing
Gelli Printing is a fun art medium both for kiddos and adults. As the name implies it involves layering paint and found objects onto a "gelli plate" that is very extremely intrusive thoughts layer close to gelatin. You can even make a thick gelatin at home and DIY it, although I've never tried that. \
Like most forms of printmaking the image is reversed; however, since gelli prints are mostly abstract in nature I have found this matters much less to kiddos than something like block printing where they very often write words backwards and cry.
An example of student work, about 10 years old.
Gelli takes upcycling to a whole new level. Paint is pulled up off the plate by different textured objects, like bubble wrap, toy trucks, combs or all sorts of plants.
While many of the kiddos had no idea what gelli printing was when we started class, that's a pretty hard sight to not get excited to play around in.
I had such a great time assisting in the Gelli Printing classes for students I had been involved in a few months later I signed up for a class as well. Below are the prints I made from that. Many of these have been collaged into other projects, which is one of my favorite ways to use them.
Prints are all one of a kind but they speak to each other; they leave remnants behind and influence the path the rest go on.
There are often standout prints that I will either use as the background for a collage or doodle on, and some that are just meant to help clear the paint off the gelli plate. That's part of what makes it such a fun art form: although it's unpredictable, it's also easy to just start over and try something new.
