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Creative Responses: Autumn Leaves & Monoprinting. November 2016

As part of my commitment to treat myself more nicely as an artist, I stepped into a pop up art shop one lunchtime and bought myself a set of watercolour postcard blanks. The purchase came with a voucher for money off at the legendary Lawrence’s of Hove. I decided I would make the most of this opportunity and made a date with myself to visit the shop. Anyone who has been to Lawrence’s will understand what a cave of creative delights the shop is – every medium is catered for and even those on a budget can find something to suit.

I spent about an hour pondering the various aisles and shelves and made some careful selections of things I really needed and for gifts for friends. I then caught sight of the Gelli printing plates. I had come across these via Mrs F of my mum’s acquaintance and been hoping to add it to my wish list for Christmas or birthday. However, with the voucher deal, I could afford to invest in a much larger pad than I might ask for and decided to purchase an A4 plate.

Ms V and I had agreed to meet for a mono-printing exploration day, and I decided to use my Gelli printing plate instead of the more traditional glass or Perspex material. Without wishing to sell on behalf of Gelli Arts, the soft gelatine plate (apologies to my Vegan friends) is a very forgiving surface allowing 3D objects to be pressed into its inked surface to create infinite patterns, textures and effects without the need for a press.

I had collected some leaves and used these along with some textured fabric, thread and papers to create a series of mono-print montages. Ghost prints were also effective with each roll up of the pad allowing 3 prints to be made (the initial layout first print, the second with objects removed, relocated or reversed, thirdly the ghost print after removing all items from the plate)

Ms V used her traditional black ink on glass method and it was great to compare the effects using the 2 methods – both definitely have merit, but I enjoyed the more crisp, detailed results of the Gelli plate which couldn’t be achieved on the glass plate without a press.

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