Gelatin Printing On Fabric

Today Beth (who wanted to remain faceless), Maureen, and Janalee came over to investigate gelatin printing with me. Beth and I prepared cookie sheets and pie tins of gelatin last night. This morning when we began we had some difficulties. While, it was not too hard to remove the gelatin from the pie tins, it was practically impossible to get it it out of the cookie sheets in one piece. We decided to leave the gelatin that was in the cookie sheets and work directly from the tray. We used foam brushes and brayers to apply water soluble fabric paint onto the gelatin's surface and then layered stencils, paper cutouts and plant materials over the paint layer.

     

We printed on prepared for dye cottons (fabric from Dharma.) Lay the fabric on the paint and press your hand or hard brayer over the fabric.  The picture on the left shows two layers of paint and you can see the brush marks and stencils clearly. 

 

This image is a 'ghost image'.  That is, the paint that is left over after the first print and the stencils are moved.  The stencils can be flipped, and repositioned.

When you are done with your original and ghost, just wipe the plate gently with a damp paper towel and on the the next image.

  

Here, Janalee used one of her stencils as a stamp.  She painted it orange and then rolled the brayer over it. 

  Eventually, the plates fall apart.  I had a lot of fun.  The process is very tactile, a little messy but inexpensive and requires little special materials.  I think I will try it with the kids when they come home.

Further resources:  Pokey Bolton of Quilting Arts has a great 'how to' blog article.  Linda Germain has very good video on Youtube on gelatin printing on paper below.