Friday 20th July  Play Day with Collective Notions


Today five of us got together to experiment with Gelatine Plate Printing. Having decided last week to meet to try this technique sourcing commercial plates was not an option. So we each made our own gelatine plates from a variety of recipes and in various sizes.

Packing my trolley with all the stuff that I thought I might need made it feel just like a TAFE day!

All neat and tidy before we started

The gelatine plates are very tactile and conducive to creating complex cloth. Resists of all types add shapes and depth to the layers. The shadow prints are often much more interesting than the first prints. We tried a wide variety of fabric and papers, with the papers often giving better results. Though I have some really interesting pieces just asking for more work and embellishment to finish them off.

Resists and tools

 Hand dyed cloth over printed 

First print using leaves and the shadow print both on paper 

Robyn's gelatin plate after printing. Hairy string and plants were used.

Some of our work

This is something worth working with. It does need planning and plenty of items for resists and texture. Having a tray large enough for the brayer would have made my day easier.

Rutherglen July 2012

Early in July I spent a weekend with my mother near Rutherglen. The mornings were Cold, -5, and the frost spectacular. Blue (the dog) did not seem to mind and was all to pleased to walk with me down to the Murray River. 

The ground was white and glistened with the rising sun, the mist hovered a few feet off the ground creating wonderful bands of light and grey. The sun bright against the early morning shadows. Down on the river flats and over the Murray itself the mist floated and threaded through trees and around the snags. One snag rose out of the water and looked like a Bunyip.