I got a wild hair and felt like playing in the studio with materials and supplies that I haven’t used in a while and that’s my gel plate. This method of putting paint to paper in totally random ways is so fun. I feel like a kid in art class again while experimenting.

I can get such different patterns and color combinations that are nearly impossible to recreate with just a brush. Not to mention I use it as a printing block which means I can get prints of just about anything that will fit on the plate. I’m only hampered by the limits of my own creativity.

It’s still summer so I’ve been enjoying the flowers even though they’ve been suffering without rain for a while. We’re in a moderate drought according to the weather man. So, I’ve been watering strategically. It seems summer isn’t letting go without a fight this year. Growing up, we always called this wonderful time of year Indian Summer.

While I was sitting admiring some particularly interesting flowers and their seed heads (hardy begonia) I thought I should preserve them somehow. Hence, the gel plate came to mind. Things are a little dried up and past their prime for lush beautiful paintings, but gel prints are perfect for this time of year.

Past gel plate printing

In years past, I’ve written about gel printing before. You can see some projects here. I’ll use these prints in collage and mixed media pieces. Some are better prints than others but that’s the nature of this medium and technique. Nothing is trash though in my book. I’ll use everything I’ve made somehow. My box of handmade collage papers is ever growing and getting out of control. Hah!

Which brings me to this particular plate (shown above), which I’ll get to in just a moment. But first, I had a homemade gel plate that I made a few years back and it’s been my go to. It’s worked great every time. The only problem is its size, it’s 8″x8″. I wanted large sheets of bronze fennel prints to use in paintings so I started looking to see what I could purchase. I wanted one about 16×20.

Woah.

They. Are. Pricey.

Like over $200.

I love the graphic quality of this chunky print. It’s commonly called a clean off print – the first couple of prints that get the most of the paint without a lot of definition.

Shopping for a large gel plate

At least pricey for the name brand ones. I discovered that not all brands have that large of a size. There’s a huge jump in price after a certain size I noticed, like more than double. Then there’s the waiting time involved. Nothing local-ish to me even had one. Waiting for art supplies is such a drag. But I went ahead and ordered one that seemed like a decent deal.

It was a kit, it came with acrylic paint (probably junk), a brayer – I can always use another brayer, a burnisher, masking tape, paper and even stencils. It sounded good and had an even better price. Still though, I could only order a 12″x14″ as the largest. But I could get it in two days. Sold.

I figured making one as large as I wanted would be costly too because I have to also buy a large container to create it in and then store it in. More on that in a bit.

So I found one on Amazon and the brand is Fuyoooo. I read the reviews and while none of them seemed to be professional artists, they seemed happy with the purchase. Maybe this should’ve been a warning that no other artists had used it.

Gathering the plants to print

In anticipation of this gel plate, I started thinking about where am I going to get the plants I wanted to print. I have plenty, believe me, but I wanted a certain airy look and it was with dill which I didn’t have. I contacted a friend and hers was nearly eaten all by caterpillars. That was intentional by the way, dill is gourmet for Eastern Black Swallowtails. They lay their eggs and then the caterpillars hatch and eat the nutrient rich leaves of dill.

I had to find another source, so I called another friend and he suggested bronze fennel. That sounded good to me. So off I went to get his before the caterpillars ate it all up. Tom and Ruth are fellow gardeners, artists and all around great people. They’re always so happy to share with me. We’ve traded several plants in the past.

Creation Day!

So the day came, I got my gel plate, I had my bronze fennel and I had the spot all set in my studio. I was ready to create a massive amount of prints. Just so you know, it takes a lot of room to let the prints dry, especially large sheets. Flat space specifically. I have a long table ready and waiting.

I rolled out my Payne’s gray and Quinacridone Violet and decided to add a little matte medium to keep the paint wet longer. It was exciting as I positioned the bronze fennel on the plate and placed the first large sheet of paper over it and smoothed the paper with my hands. I used the brayer to help flatten and I was ready to pull my first reverse print!

The anticipation was high…

Gently pull, pull, pull… then disappointment.

The paper had stuck to the gel plate. Ugh. Parts of the paper stayed on the plate and I picked them off with purply fingers. What was going on?! I tried another sheet of paper. I was still cleaning off the plate I reminded myself. This is where you get a majority of the paint off for more defined and subtle prints to come.

It just got worse. Had I glued my paper to the plate using the matte medium? This is not what I expected to happen.

I was disheartened and aggravated. I just gave up. I had pulled about 3 prints with not very good results. The paint was just stuck to the plate.

While laying out my set up, I had noticed the new plate had a strange feel to it. Almost too dry. My years old homemade plate stayed this weird consistency and felt the same as when I had made it, not quite dry, almost oily.

Cleaning up

Then I tried to clean it up. I sprayed water all over the new plate and attempted to wipe it off with regular paper towels. The paint didn’t want to come off. I did a round two with the water and paper towels. This time I scrubbed harder and it started to come off. It took a lot to clean the plate, more than I would’ve thought but I finally got it clean and put it away for the night.

I surveyed my production, which wasn’t much and went upstairs defeated and annoyed.

It must be the plate I thought or the combination of the plate with the matte medium. This didn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Day two – trying again

Perplexed, I decided I had to know if it was the matte medium. Had it gone bad? It was a good brand, Liquitex. Was it a chemical reaction with the new gel plate and medium?

It was time to experiment. I got out my old homemade plate and created a regular print with paint only. It worked fine. I then got my larger new plate out and used only the paint and no addition of matte medium and had similar results to my old plate. Not great, but better than the night before.

(Now I know I didn’t use the matte medium on the old plate to see if that was truly the culprit, but I didn’t want to waste anymore paint and I was limited on my time. It is what it is.)

Conclusion

It must’ve either been the matte medium or the actual plate itself. The paint on the new plate dried very fast and was still hard to clean but it was better than the previous attempt. I’m thinking of maybe treating it with glycerin. Maybe it needs lubrication? Or maybe it needs to be broke in? Who knows.

My next option is to purchase some Golden Open acrylics. They stay wet longer than traditional acrylics. It was disappointing more than anything. There were high hopes and I love the size of the this new plate so I’ll continue to use it until I’m just so fed up that I make a new large one which I may still do. You just never know with art supplies.

Anyway, I hope you learned from my mistakes. I won’t be using matte medium with the plate any longer that’s for sure. Also, I will press my plants flat for a day or so before hand. That would’ve made it easier to print.

All in all, I’m happy with the prints I’ve created so far, even with the aggravation.

Stay tuned to see what I create with the papers and prints of bronze fennel.