GELLI AND MONO PRINTING

Our May Fiber Junkie's meeting focused on gelli and mono printing. Gen was our ever gracious hostess....allowing us to take over her house and make a big mess. 

 Denny who owns enough 'stuff' to open her own art store came prepared with gelli pans for each of us.  Several members brought books plus other tools for inspiration and after a slow start we jumped in.  I was so engrossed in what I was doing, my usual picture taking was ignored except for my personal quests.

First, some background....I blogged about this in March but will repost some of it here to make it easier for you to follow.  I've created so many dyed/printed designs as a result of our meetings that this time I was determined to see if I could rescue a few of my failures.

The color of this National Nonwoven 80/20 Woolfelt piece turned me off.

So, back in March when we experimented with microwave ice-dyeing this was the even uglier result.  I HATED it!!!

WOW.....what a difference a little mono printing makes!  Be sure to keep reading to see more transformations.

This wool piece had been previously tray-dyed at least a year and a half ago....yielding boring results. Another half year + went by and I reworked it using an acrylic paint Shibori method.  Sadly, now it's even worse!

What the heck, three must be the charm.  So at our last meeting, I decided to see what would happen if I microwaved ice-dyed it.  Perhaps it's slightly better....but not really usable in my humble opinion.

Okay, we are now up to date....May 2015.  My tools are ready, Plexiglas, brayer roller, and some stencil ideas.....

3 colors of acrylic paint were smeared on the Plexiglas, using a credit card rather than the roller.

My pal Kate loaned me a charming leaf stamp.....but one addition made me realize this wasn't the solution to fix this fabric either.

Now I was really stumped.....until Val showed us a bunch of Stencil Girl stencils she'd brought.  Yes, yes.....this may be the answer.  So with additional paint on the Plexiglas, topped with a stencil....I boldly pressed the wool onto the plate.

YIPPIE!!!  Over the moon results.....I couldn't have been happier!!  The wool was nearly a yard long which required more printing.....and more jumping up and down.

This final example was another microwave ice-dyed failure.  It's a loosely woven cotton...Before view on the left - After on the right. I should have realized it wouldn't accept dye because when I soaked it in soda ash the fabric seemed to repeal the solution. Obviously there was some sort of finish/sizing that should have been removed.  BUT.....I boldly went ahead and tried dyeing it anyway.....and got nearly zip for my efforts.

I was on a roll using Val's stencils so I plunged ahead and printed several different designs on this yard long piece. I didn't make an effort to have them continuous since I wanted to try a variety of shapes.

These will eventually get cut up and hopefully find their way into a cohesive piece of wall art.  

Our newest member Denny has set such a good example by constantly reworking fabrics she wasn't pleased with....thank you for the encouragement!!!  And of course the cheering and sharing of all FJ members are what can make an ordinary day extra-ordinary.

Linking to:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Whoop, whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts, and Richard and Tanya Quilts.