When Is a Laundry Room not a Laundry Room?

When it's an art room, of course.....I have a laundry room next to the back of my studio and it has turned out to be a perfect place for gelli printing....

It's been such a long time since I pulled out my gelli stuff I had to take take a quick peek at the book to refresh my memory...but, as it turns out, it comes back to you really quickly..

Today was a dark and delightfully rainy Friday and what better to do than hang out and play with paint?
I couldn't think of anything......I had pumpkin curry in the fridge for lunch and rain on the roof and paint and paper and good music.....

It was so easy to set up since I had the boxes of supplies right there in the cupboards of the laundry...er...art room....just pulled them out and in five minutes I was pulling prints.

Making pages for my altered book -- hey -- you guys told me I needed to make my own altered book after I showed you the one I made for Dori's birthday....

***And the pages at 5 x 7-1/2***
I'm just saying in case any of you ( I can punch the holes.and you know who you are) want to send me some pages you make to add to my book.

Stencils, fingers....it all works....I employ a variety of techniques.

I was smart enough to pack a box with everything I need -- papers, bubble wrap, tags, card stock,  mark making things-- so all I had to do was to get busy.
And WHY have I waiting so long to do this? It is so easy and fun and a perfect thing to be doing on a rainy day.
(You may have to get used to us here in San Francisco talking about rain all the time...we are trying to get over a drought and every time it rains we get over-excited)

I ended up with about twenty double-sided pages and some tags and postcards....and one little bag I gellied too...not bad for a few hours.

You can see three postcards here and a couple of test sheets....

So, that you have it -- a rainy Friday afternoon with me.

Next up, got to trim the pages to size and do some collaging on them and punch holes and add to my altered book.
What are you all doing? Is it raining where you are? Or, maybe snowing?
Grab some paper and paint and start playing.
It's the weekend.

GET GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

Wet Paint

Recently I took a Gelli plate printing workshop with Monica Lee, who is a mail art pal of mine and a wonderful artist. She is an Arist in Residence at Ruth's Table  where the workshop was.
The workshop was really fun -- kinda like a paint party....thought you might like to take a look.
And, if you're local, keep an eye on the website for more classes/workshops at Ruth's Table.
I might see you there!

Check out Monica's web site The Artful ReCrafter by clicking her name above -- she does all kinds of great things and is a master at re-using and re-purposing.

Monica brought loads of stencils and papers and paints to the workshop and after a demo she just let us all run wild!
It was too much fun.

You guys all know what a Gelli plate is, right?

You don't need much to have a whole lot of fun and be able to crank out lots of painted paper. You just need a Gelli plate, brayer, acrylic paints and paper and you're good to go.
I'm not going to try to explain it all here because there is tons of information out there about Gelli printing -- YouTube videos, books on Amazon, blogs etc

Here are a couple of interesting links --

Gelli printing by my mail art pal Leslie --  click the link! She makes some terrific prints.
Robin Mead made some fun journals using gelli pages
Gelli Arts
Karen from MMSA does it too (I love her gelli prints!)
&
Linda Germain's Gelli Post


WARNING: Gelli Printing is VERY addictive and you may get hooked on it.

You can make your own plates and Karen (link above) talks about it. I am really happy with my Gelli block though....

You can print on tags, card stock, paper, deli paper, dictionary pages......anything goes....

One of the participants had a birthday the day of the workshop and Monica even brought cake. Now that's a good teacher!
Artists running wild with sugar and paint -- always a good thing!

You can use leaves for stencils and bubble-wrap and anything with texture...

Here are some of my cards and tags....I really got into using that stencil with the circles.....

I've got kind of a fall color thing going on here.....I left the workshop with a whole bunch of printed cards and tags and I can't wait to set up shop and play some more. In fact I invited myself once again to visit Leslie (link above) for a massive gelli printing session at her studio soon.

Here are a couple of books Monica had at the workshop. I don't have them but they looked good if you're looking for a how-to book. There are quite a few of them out there...

Some of my cards -- got kind of a Halloween thing going on there with the black and orange, don't you think?

More of my cards....

I swear, I am having too much fun making cards and envelopes. Addictive.

You can gelli print on book pages like this -- dictionary pages, maps, foreign language text.....

I decided to add in some gelli pages in a travel journal I am making....here's one page...

...and here's another....

I will just collage right over this, leaving a bit of gelli peeking out.....

See what I mean?
Once you start, you just can't stop. It is perfect to do on a hot day and I am sure it will be a lot of fun to do on a cold day day. Or a rainy day.
I'm having fun.
How many of you are making gelli prints?
What are your secrets?
What do you like to print on? Any books to recommend? How do you use the papers?
I have printed on book pages, tags, card stock and deli paper......I need more ideas...

And, one last word, it really isn't as messy as some of you think it is.
The hours just speed by....very relaxing....and you end up with good stuff.
Have fun.

SEND GOOD MAIL  ---  GET GOOD MAIL