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I added a new section to the website: "More Fun Stuff." It's got some of my botanic printing and birdhouse gourd experiments. I learned the botanic printing method from Jane Dunnewold (who else?!). I took her online course and read her book by the same name: The Best of Both Worlds: Enhanced Botanical Printing. You make up bundles of leaves pressed ight against paper or fabric soaked in a mordant such as an alum acetate solution and then steam the bundles. Opening up the bundles is like opening up presents. It's always a surprise what you get. Sometimes the prints flop and you don't get anything very interesting. Then other times the prints are stunning.  Fig and Peony Leaves Our local Kelrae Farm Food Hub has been selling birdhouse gourds and I couldn't resist getting a few. I started out planning to make birdhouses out of them so this one below has a hole cut in it and has been painted with a layer of gesso to seal it. I haven't decided if I will paint it or mosaic it next. I also have another one that I am working on that is cut into two flower shapes. I am going to make planters out of those. You can see the work in process here: Birdhouse Gourds.  Both types of projects are great fun! Hope you are having fun making stuff too!
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A few weeks ago we had a family gelatin printing party at Mom's (Ann's) house. Holly (my brother's wife) and Tyler joined us in the fun!
We got the recipe for gelatin plates from unflavored gelatin powder years ago from the QuiltArt email chat group. Basically it's like making really thick Jell-O without the color and flavoring (2 rounded tablespoons gelatin to 1 cup of water) and then pouring it into a tray to set (a tray not used for food, of course). The QuiltArt member had posted the recipe from the book Making Monotypes Using a Gelatin Plate: Printmaking without a Press by Nancy Marculewicz. I just invested in a copy of the book which is out-of-print. It is fetching a generous price tag from about $40 to $90 for used copies. It's a fabulous book. I'm going to have to do more gelatin printing because the book has so many inspiring art prints in it and some printing techniques that I haven't tried.
The gelatin plates make a wonderful printing plate that captures the minute detail of whatever flat, textured items you put on them such as the leaves and lace we used at our printing party. I was a bit haphazard about how I went about printing on fabric. I felt out of practice and giddy to be printing on fabric again.  Mom's (Ann's) maple leaf prints on embroidered silk fabric It was fun to see the variation in what we made. I experimented with printing using a crocheted table runner, some smoke bush flower branches, and other leaves. Mom mostly experimented with leaves on beautiful embroidered silk fabrics. Holly reinvigorated a crocheted doily by giving it some brighter colors. Tyler mostly had fun playing with the paint rather than actually making lots of prints.
We did discover that the plate will start to melt if it's too hot outside. Tyler turned his first plate into a mushy pile. Luckily for him I had made extra gelatin plates so it didn't stop our paint playtime before we were ready to stop.
Happy making stuff! |
AuthorsSonja Lee- Austin Archives
April 2024
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