Friday 13th June 2025 Deepcut Community Centre
The demo was presented by Patti Dutton, who has been a member of Frimley & Camberley Society of Arts for 4 years, and is also the acting Honorary Secretary. She discovered how much she enjoyed Gelli printing and mark making through crafting and during the Covid lockdowns.
Patti explained that Gelli printing is done with a Gelli plate that is made of silicone. These reusable plates come in different sizes. They are easy to clean with a damp cloth between prints or with soapy water at the end of a session. It is important to keep the two protection sheets on either side of the plate and keep it in its original cover to keep it moist and soft and preserve it for future use:
Gelli Printing Materials
- Newspaper or wipeable tablecloth to protect your work surface
- Acrylic paints
- Gelli Plate (you can buy gelli pads in a variety of sizes from different manufacturers). Or as Natalie Nagy has done, make her own. See link below.
- Brayer
- Sheets of paper (a wide variety of types of paper can be used from newsprint, printed wrappers, tissue paper, Japanese rice paper)
- All kinds of things that can add pattern or texture.
- Stencils are particularly effective
To make a Gelli print first put a small amount of fluid acrylic paint on the Gelli plate. Little dots of paint on the plate works well. Use the brayer to spread it all over the plate. The paint should feel a bit sticky, if there is too much paint it will just slide around and this will not print well. This is your base colour.
Patti placed the paper on the plate, and rubbed it with her hands, so that the paint adhered to the paper. She pulled the paper off and put a second colour on the Gelli plate and added a stencil. Next she added the first piece of paper back onto the plate. After rubbing it again she pulled it to reveal the image of the stencil.
Patti can also remove the stencil which leaves another image, she can then put one of her pre-pulled backgrounds onto the plate and pull a ‘ghost’ image.
Patti went on to demonstrate that all sorts of things can be used to create a pattern or design such as different materials like bubble wrap or by using leaves, anything that will leave an interesting imprint. Printing onto a variety of paper also adds interest.
It is possible to write/draw on the prints that are created by using acrylic marker pens. These should NEVER be permanent markers. Patti brought a set of Posca marker pens. Posca PC-3M Water Based Permanent Marker Paint Pens for Art & Crafts. They can be used on wood, metal, paper, canvas, cardboard, fabric and a variety of different surfaces.
Patti then invited everyone to have a go for themselves and the room erupted into a hive of activity with everyone producing a range of unique, colourful prints.
There is no question that people were keen to see what they could create with this form of interesting mark making. Here is a gallery of some of the prints that were created.
A few tips from Patti:
- Remember colour theory and choose colours that work well together for best effect.
- Thick paper does not print well. Thinner paper such as Chinese rice paper, Mulberry paper and other crafting paper works well.
- Fine paper may tend to tear so it is a good idea to pull gently from the corner.
- To keep the Gelli plate in good condition wash it with warm soapy water and use baby oil at the end of the session to clean it completely.
Here is a Youtube link for homemade Gelli Plates.
https://kimherringe.com.au/printmaking/gelatin-plate-printmaking-recipe/
With many thanks to Patti Dutton for her second Gelli Printing session both of which have been enthusiastically taken up by society members. Also thanks to Marie Bunce for taking the photographs and to Patti for the information in the text.