Hi.

Thanks for popping in. If you watched Create & Craft last Sunday, you’ll have seen me use not one, but TWO large Gelpress plates! This was to move through a monoprinting printing process quickly. If you use two plates, you can bounce between colours, transferring colours back and forth as you pull prints, getting loads of blends and lovely ghost prints. If you’re only working with one plate, you have to keep cleaning it, and the colours muddy, and you can’t bounce – it’s just not the same.

I went with our Queen Anne’s lace stencil, designed by Mel. There‘s a whole set in the Botanical Range. Absolutely the best. CLICK HERE TO FIND

I also used slow drying Golden Open Paints; the oily property of these paints is great for transfer and blend. Closer to rubber-basing printing ink used in printmaking. A little goes a long way. We have some in stock: CLICK HERE

• Spread a thin amount of Buff Titanium onto one plate using a brayer, and pull a print on our Clarity Stencil Card (large).
• On the other Gelpress spread a thin amount of Payne’s Gray, and place the stencil onto the wet paint.
• Lay a sheet of copy paper onto the gray plate and blot the gray well all around the stencil.
• Carefully remove the stencil and place it wet side down on the Buff Tit plate (there‘s a ghost print in there)
• Place the Buff Tit printed sheet on the table face up
• Flip the Gray Gel Press Plate (with the image of the Stencil visible) down on the Buff Tit layer, and press.
• Flip back, so the paper is facing you, burnish the back lightly, then pull your print.

You could pull dozens of these, adding other colours to the “Stencil Plate” OR the “Backdrop Plate”. I went with neutral colours, to add a hint of colour with pencils afterwards, when the paint was dry. (doesn’t take long)

The Gel Press is a great tool for monoprinting. Comes in different sizes. CLICK HERE. Treat yourself to the matching Megamounts too. Game changer.

Over the years I have done loads of Youtubes and classes using the Gel Press. It is a fabulous piece of kit. Just head over the Claritystamp Youtube, to investigate. It’s a great way to pull monoprints without investing in a printing press. A decent etching press – a used one – can cost many many hundreds, a new one thousands.

Now, as I’m getting older, I have travelled further along the printmaking road. Now I own a beautiful old printing press or two, and am attending classes regularly, to expand my knowledge. And what I have figured out is that two plates are key. Gel Plates too. Trust me. This will open a creative door.

Happy Hands.

Love always

Barb x x x