tutorial gelatin plate

 

What you'll need is a packet of gelatin sheets (or gelatin powder), a bowl, a shallow dish and water.
Cover the dish with cling film.

Soak the gelatin sheets in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes. The more gelatin you use, the firmer your gelatin plate will be. Instructions on the packet are 12 sheets for 1 liter of water for normal use. I’ve used 18 sheets for 0.5 liter of water. (I’ve used a little more than I normally do, as I didn’t want the plate to fall apart for this tutorial. I could only leave it in the fridge for a few hours, as I wanted to finish this tutorial today.)

Squeeze out the sheets and put the gelatin back in the empty bowl.
Measure out how much water you’ll need to fill your dish. Boil this amount of water and add it to the gelatin in the bowl. Stir until dissolved.

Pour the solution in the dish and leave to cool down. Then put it in the refrigerator for a day, the gelatin will have set and it should be very firm.

Take the gelatin plate out of the dish by lifting the cling film and put it on a flat surface.
You can choose which side you’d prefer on top, the side which has been sitting on the cling film and will have creases, or the top, which should be smooth. It’s up to you what you prefer.

Now you can start making your monoprints.

Use a paint roller to apply a thin layer of textile paint or acrylic paint to the gelatin plate. Take a piece of fabric and lay it carefully on the plate, then gently press with your hand. Take it off again and you’ll have a monoprint.

 

To make marks on your print you can use just anything: pieces of string, leaves, shapes, cut out of paper. Lay them on the painted plate and make a monoprint. This will give you a negative print. You can then use the objects and use them to make a positive print on your fabric.

You can also apply a layer of paint to the plate, lay a piece of fabric on top and then you can use stamps or other objects to make marks by gently pressing them on the fabric.

For the following samples I used the green fabric from the first print, put it on the plate on which I'd applied red paint, then gently pressed a stamp on it. The result was this positive print.

I was then left with this plate to make a negative print.

There are so many ways to make monoprints, just experiment and play, it’s fun!