Making your own stencils. You may think, why go to the trouble of making your own stencils when you can just buy them. Apart from saving you money, they are unique. The designs or artwork you create is your own and personal to you. There are many ways to make stencils. In this blog I will talk about making stencils using a glue gun. Part 1 - Making stencils with a glue gun. The glue gun stencils were made with a gelli plate in mind, but can … [Read more...]
Acrylic Paint trial on a Gelli plate
I realise, there are many variations to how acrylic paint reacts and dries, such as temperature, humidity and climate. This acrylic paint trial on a gelli plate was purely how the applications worked for me, and mostly based on using a brayer to apply the paint. Inexpensive craft paint is thin and spreads very well, only a small amount was needed eg. the smallest amount you could get out of the bottle as its tipped and smeared off directly … [Read more...]
My experiences using a Gelli Plate
My experiences using a Gelli Arts Printing Plate. What is a Gelli plate - A Gelli plate is for creating monoprints without a press. The plate I am using is produced by Gelli Arts, and is about 3/4 of an inch thick. Gelli plates can be homemade using gelatine but are not very durable. They need to be kept in a refrigerator and only keep for about a week. Recipes for this can be found on line. Before purchasing a Gelli plate, I watched … [Read more...]
Finding some old charcoal in the drawer!
Finding some old charcoal in the drawer! What can I do with this? I haven’t used charcoal since uni, over twenty years! For a start, I needed some paper without a smooth surface, such as watercolour or pastel paper. I know the paper needs to have some ‘tooth’, in other words some texture or roughness for the charcoal to grip. If the paper is smooth, the charcoal will kind of fall off, and smudge much more easily. I rummaged about in my … [Read more...]
Recreating my favourite field with acrylic paint
Fens nature reserve is fairly close to where I live, in the Midlands. There are several man made pools over there, which were dug out to keep the Stourbridge canal full in the days of canal transport. The pools are now home to ducks, swans, coots, moorhens and an abundance of wildlife. Beyond the pools lies my favourite field. The field runs down the reserve from what appears to be the highest point. In early summer the field is white with … [Read more...]
