Gelli Jam with Kari McKnight Holbrook

If you are reading this post to learn all about gelli printing, you will be sorely disappointed! Patty can tell you much more and show you far better examples! 

Gelli printing is messy and tons of fun. I'd never tried it before, but after my gelli printing class with Kari McKnight Holbrook at SmittenDust, I can see why she loves doing it so much. (This is one of Kari's papers below!)

Gelli printing is essentially making monoprints on a plate made of gelatin (if you do it yourself) or what I suspect is some kind of silicone (if you buy a ready-made gelli plate).

Your supplies include paint -- relatively inexpensive acrylic paint is recommended. Yes, you can use your Golden fluids, but at $1.59 for a bottle of decent craft paint versus $5.99 and more for Golden, this heavy-on-the-paint technique works fine with the less expensive brands.

Your other supplies include a soft paint-spreading brayer and various items you can use for texture and pattern. These include stamps, cheesecloth, rubber bands, string, bubble wrap. You get the idea.

I'm oversimplifying this but basically, you mix your paint on a freezer paper palette (that's a Kari tip that some of you may already know and do. The shiny side of the freezer paper is easy to work with and inexpenive). Plus, when you are done, you can tear it up and use it!

Then bray it directly onto your printing plate.

Lay items on the painted plate for texture and design interest.

Then cover them with your paper and press to transfer the color and design to your paper.

Doing a second "ghost" print after allows you an even different look at what you just did.

When you have a bunch of papers (and you can use about any kind of paper), you can reprint over them with different colors and designs for extremely complicated patterns, like that first photo of Kari's.

There are other techniques, too, and as I said -- I am not the person to share them, for I am just learning.

The good thing about the class is that we are all learning. And we all learn from each other, too -- sharing stamps and stencils along with the supplies generously provided by Kari.

But I thought you might like to see a few of my cards showing how to use the papers. This one is pretty simple, done with a stamp.

I used one with a tree stamp as the background for this Christmas card.

 

And here are two using various papers highlighting my favorite spot! this one used some of the purples from the above tree...

And this one had more peach tones. (The purple on this one below is from a purchased paper.)

 

So, save all your oddly shaped, interestingly patterned flat things and give it a try!

http://bitze.wordpress.com/

Thanks to Kari's typically excellent instruction, this one was a great workshop -- and this is a technique I will be using over and over again! (Visit Patty for more inspiration on gelli printing -- just use her search tab to find her posts!)

Angels with Kari McKnight Holbrook

Anytime I can take a class with Kari McKnight Holbrook, I jump at the chance. Last week she was visiting SmittenDust, our local art haven, teaching several classes. I was able to sign up for two. The first involved making a polymer angel canvas. These are Kari's.

Kari is an excellent teacher -- first of all, she explains well.

She brings lots of supplies to share.

And she shows us how to use them. And makes sure we know how!

All of this she does with great good humor, which always makes a workshop more fun. And she is ready, willing and able to give assistance when needed.

We all started with a basic shape template of an angel to fit in a 5x7 canvas. We learned about conditioning the polymer clay and spent a good deal of time at the pasta machine mixing colors till they were "just right." Basically, she turned us loose and let us fly.

These are several stages of my angel. First, just the clay on a worksheet.

Then with more details.

Then baked and wiped with a sepia glaze that brings out the texture.

Finally, the finished piece with its creator. You can't tell from this but after the photo above, I added coppery gold to her wings.

What was fun was that even though we all chose the same basic template for our angels, they all were very different. This is Dusty's. (Dusty is also Ms. SmittenDust!)

Here, Linda is adding touches to her angel's dress.

 

And this is Amy's as it went into the oven -- we loved her dreadlock pony tail!

 

I'm not terribly familiar with polymer. I've made a few things before -- mostly beads or covering boxes (that was in another Kari class!). This was a terrific experience and I ended up with a project that I like. (And will like a little more when I perk up the mouth and eyes!)

All in all, I'd say if you have a yen to try something new and creative and Kari comes to your town (she also does a number of the national events, including Art and Soul and Create), 

sign up!

Next time I'll show you the fun of gelli printing!

Moodling with Kari McKnight Holbrook

I was not at my best last May when I went to the Moodling workshop with Kari McKnight Holbrook at SmittenDust

But oddly enough, art really can take you out of yourself that the headache -- which, as soon as you think about it is a killer -- really isn't that noticed.

Working with lovely people who are all creating their own unique versions of the sample and guidance that we are learning is motivating, delightful and fun.

Learning new techniques that you know you will use again feels as though you are actually accomplishing something. I'm not going into details, because on things like this I feel that sort of belongs to the teacher. But this is enough to give you the idea.

Our Moodling class involved taking a 4 inch square canvas (although that size is optional), painting it with acrylics, then using techniques such as texture and crackle glaze to give it character.

Add to that the polymer clay embellishments we made: hearts, birds, an Eiffel Tower. Ours all were different which was what made it fun.

Then after that, a word, a phrase, a highlight or two, some beads or buttons. Voila! Art!

That makes it sound very simple. But if it was, I would have finished! Of course I didn't finish my pieces in class. It's more likely that I don't rather than do!

So I took them home and now, several weeks later, the finished pieces!

 This one has my made-by-me Eiffel Tower, an antique button from a Parisian flea market and the texturing you saw above That crackle doesn't show up well in the photo, but really, it does!

A couple of us were captivated by this bird mold. I had a dickens of a time with painting the background and gessoed-and-removed more than once! The nest are lines from an old French book, the eggs, pearls.
Kari is an incredible teacher -- she's fun, she explains things well, she's generous with her supplies and she brings great spirit and energy to any class -- I've taken others from her as well, and will gladly take more. I strongly recommend her as a teacher -- and her projects are just plain fun!

There will be more of these wee canvases. In fact, in class I prepped two others. One is nearly done; the other still requires some creative thinking. But I'll share those, too!

Meanwhile, I just want to thank Kari and Dusty of SmittenDust for bringing wonderful artists to Lansing. Jen Crossley did workshops at SmittenDust at the same time Kari was there and Kristin Robinson is coming in August. We all loved the shopping opportunity, the delightful atmosphere and jolly times being creative. If you're in the mid-Michigan (or beyond) region and are interested in checking out the upcoming workshops, visit SmittenDust.com -- and get on Dusty's email list!

Making Art with Kari McKnight Holbrook

Three days of making art. What's not to love?

Our workshop weekend, held in Haslett, MI, featured Kari McKnight Holbrook, one of the most generous and delightful teachers I've ever worked with.

She was excellent at explaining technique, thorough at answering questions, encouraging even when saying "I think I did something wrong!" And yes, had great good humor!

Her demos were easy to follow and allowed us freedom to be creative while working within the parameters of a workshop setting.

Day One--Acrylic Journal

The first night focused on making a journal using watercolor paper and acrylics, then binding it into the journal itself. Kari demonstrated different techniques we could use on our page, including screens, stencils, stamps and more.

Here's how my page started.

And later.

You wouldn't think it would end up as anything nice, would you? But Kari repeatedly said "Trust the process."

Then we tore it into pieces and stitched it up!

And sure enough, by the time it was bound into a journal, I was delighted!

(I will embellish with beads and fiber soon and finish the cover, too!)

Day Two -- Altered Childrens Book Journal

The second day we were altering a child's book into a journal. Here's what I started with.

This is a pretty time consuming process. Serious amounts of gesso were used to prep the pages and I learned that if if you dry the pages with a heat gun (vs. hair dryer) and have waxed paper underneath protecting other pages, you may have chunks of page tear off. Sometimes that worked, sometimes not. Here's a spread using one of the stamps Kari designed. (The blue, not the overlay green, a second stamp.)

It was fun making patterns in the gesso.

And while I still have some spots I'm not fond of, I can paste things down over the parts I don't like! (I'll share the cover with you when I finish it! And maybe even some of the inside!)

Day Three -- Vintage Vessels

On the third day, we made "vintage vessels" -- boxes covered with polymer and a variety of paints and potions to make an aged-looking box.

I loved doing this. I started with ugly green clay (and a little bit of other colors, too, since I ran out of green!). Those blue bits next to it and on top of the box were made from clay in molds made from a wonderful mold-making material called "Knead a Mold." Highly recommended!

My polymer experience was limited, but with the right stamps, time and excellent teaching (along with layers of a special paint with metallic bits in it, a spray to bring out the patina and a special dark wax to age it), I was thrilled with the results!

Here's the view from the top. You can see the patina is already beginning to come out and should continue over the course of a couple of weeks.

Kari is very big on using materials at hand and being very clever. "Shop your house," she says, showing us cookie cutters, screen, a plastic fork, bottle caps and one of my favorites, a corn plaster glued to a bottle cap that makes a great "dot" stamp!

She was also generous with her materials, sharing powders, paints, stamps, and other things we could try so we could get a handle on whether or not we wanted to invest in them. The class kits had good instructions, suppliers and more.

And Kari's husband Mike took care of us with terrific lunches and snacks! Who could beat it?

What can I say but, Wow! Thanks to Kari's teaching, the wonderful people attending and the joy of creating, I had a fabulous weekend!

Kari posts notice of her workshops on her blog, The Back Porch Artessa. Take a visit! Better yet, take a class! She'll be teaching at the upcoming Art & Soul workshop.