© Sue Lewis

Gelli Plate Demo – Sue Lewis

Assemble all supplies and protect your work surface with plastic. Arrange a place to dry your prints. Place your gelli plate on freezer paper and set another sheet of freezer paper beside it. You can use this as a palette to mix paint on or to set your brayer on. Drop dots of paint on the plate and roll the paint out with the brayer to completely cover it. You can use 2 or 3 different colors of paint. Place stencils, texture plates or leaves on top of the paint. Lightly drop the fabric or paper face down on the plate. Brayer the substrate down smoothly. Then pull the print slowly by lifting one corner and set it aside to dry. If desired, remove the texture materials and pull a ghost print. This 2nd print will not be as bright as the original. When finished, clean up the plate by wiping it with a baby wipe or immerse in a tub of warm soapy water. 

Gelli Printing supply list:

• Gelli Plate –  8 x 10
• Light colored fabric – 9 x 11 is suggested, but any size works
• Tissue paper, deli paper, sheet music or rice paper to experiment with
• Acrylic paint (or any paint that cleans up with water)
• Brayers – 2 (one for paint application onto plate and 1 “clean” one to smooth the fabric or paper down)
• Freezer paper or palette paper
• Plastic gloves
• Stencils, texture plates, leaves, weeds, thread, etc to use as masks or texture
• Wash tub with warm soapy water
• Baby wipes or paper towels to clean plate and brayers