I've been having a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas and getting some appointments caught up and working of course. Thankfully, yesterday was my last day of working for a week. It seems like a fun road ahead of me, which will be over in a flash! Time always seems to speed up when there is lots I want to do. I truly will be trying to enjoy ALL of the moments though.
I like to watch other artist on youtube (or anywhere really) and about a week ago an artist that makes prints on his gel press cut out some paper snowflakes to use as stencils and created a colorful print with them. I loved the bright colors and the idea of hand cut paper snowflakes. They took me back to my childhood for a while. I tried to remember when I last cut a paper snowflake. I'm sure it was after I was an adult, but it has been so long I can't even remember what it would have been for.
One evening after our family Christmas party, I decided to cut out some random snowflakes and use them to make some collage papers on my gel plate. Like always, their perfection was unimportant as the collage papers get torn and cut to be used in random pieces of art. My goal wasn't to make a finished print with the gel pulls, but out of all I ended up with, I thought the one above could have been a possible stand-alone print, well, if I had done it on purpose and used good print paper.... heh.... as it is, I could of course still mat it and frame it. At my house, nearly anything can go on the wall.
Theses are the quick cut snowflake shapes I made.
This was my first pull. I loved how clear it came out.
This was a much later pull that didn't come out too well, but I loved the colors and parts of it would still be good for collage art.
These three photos are of the ink shapes on the gel press. I had laid the snowflakes down, rolled paint over them and then lifted them up, leaving their shapes on the plate. Each time I took a photo, because I liked how they looked and for real, once you put more paint over it, lay a piece of paper on it, smooth, wait and then pull it up, you never quite know which parts of it will stay on the paper. That is what makes the gel printing so fun. Things nearly never come out like you imagine.
Not perfectly defined.... but still pretty in a sort of way.
The bits of colors scattered throughout on some are called "grunge", little bits of leftover paint, left from the pulls before, but finally coming up off of the press later on some unsuspecting print.
I thought these looked more like cookies!
Not quite as I expecting.... still fun!
I nearly always like just blue and white, nearly any shade of blue with white. I didn't quite get the paint pressed in to some of the little open spaces. Some parts are still good and usuable.
Since the stencils were made of paper, they took a little more beating each time I used them. This was the first paper that tried to hold onto them. Some of this ink and paper surface tried not to let me have them back. It caused some tears on some of the flakes. I even think parts of this one will have some use down the line. These photos are not in order and not all I made that one evening.
The background on this one was a print that did not come out quite right, so I used it to lay some gloppy painted snowflakes on after I pulled them up and it made random shapes. Black snowflake??? ha ha.... I have already used that part in a mini collage. I may show it later when I show what I am doing on that.
Would you like some green snowflakes with a fox whose wearing socks? ha ha.... These might belong in the Green Eggs and Ham book.
OOps! That didn't quite work and yet I could see a snowy horizon painted a little over halfway down later on, that might cause skyflakes above it. It could be a good idea.... maybe
This is just a roll-off sheet that caught some phantom shapes from the roller.
Last, but not lease, the "after" snowflakes. Some worn and torn.... others amazingly held up well.
So... what have you been up too while I was having fun?
Hope it was something good and that your heart is happy.
