One Motif, Multiple Inspirations

Last week I posted about using a single DecoArt stencil to create many different prints with the gelli plate. I used some of those prints to create the four collages that I showed in my last post.

Later in the week, I decided to push the experiment further. When my fall classes were in session, I had taped a sheet of paper from a large roll that I had onto one of my studio tables. That paper had been used already to deposit surplus paint from my brayers. I had also scribbled some random pencil marks on top of  the color. As a result, I was starting with some overall color and marks, but very random and unplanned.

Using the gelli plate as a stamp, I covered the paper with monoprints in different colors, sometimes overlapping them. Some of the prints were ghost prints, and some were a first print, and some were layered prints. But throughout the exercise, I used the same stencil.  To use the gelli plate as a stamp, simply get a sheet of plexi just a little larger than the gelli plate. With just a little pressure applied first, the gelli plate will adhere to the plexi enough to invert it and stamp your print onto a surface such as canvas, etc.

Here is the finished sheet taped to a canvas so I could photograph it.

36 x 60″ sheet of paper

At this point I liked the big sheet intact, without cutting it apart. But that wasn’t my original plan. So here are some of the resulting collages that I got from it.

 

I am thrilled with the all of the possibilities using just one stencil. Stencils made commercially never figured into my thought process until now. But as you can see, you truly can make them your own. I hope you’ll experiment with some of these ideas and let me know what happens.