Hi Helmar fans,
Krisy back today with my last post as a member of the Helmar Creative Team. I am now a full time student and my time is very stretched so I have had to give up a few things and unfortunately design teams is one. But anyways, enough about me, today I am tapping into another trend and sharing with you some ideas that you might like to try.
If you haven't seen them yet there is such as thing as a Gelli plate or Gel Press that is a gelatine type printing plate that makes monoprints. You apply paint to them with a brayer then make marks, put a piece of paper over the top, rub it a bit and then pull the print. It is really quite fun and addictive. What does this have to do with Helmar I hear you ask? Well I have been playing with ideas on different ways to make patterns and by chance these can double as art itself.
Here is what you will need:
Some paper – Magazine pages, book pages or newspaper. (Depending if you want to keep your template at the end, I found newspaper it the best.
Helmag 450 Quick Dry Glue
A piece of very stiff cardboard or wood
A gelli plate or similar but you could just use the template as a stamp so this is not entirely necessary
Paint.
First things first, You need to make your rolls.
To make rolls take a piece of newspaper and simply roll it into long thin tubes. The best way to do this is to use the handle of a paint brush or a BBQ skewer. Secure your roll with a strip of Helmar 450.
Repeat this process until you have enough rolls to cover your cardboard or wood. You can arrange your rolls as you like. I did some horizontal and some vertical. Then you glue them in place. The rolls can be cut just using a pair of scissors.
In not long your glue will be dry and you will be ready to make some prints.
Here are my finished template…I had already used it, I forgot to take a progress photo.
Here's what it looks like from the side.
Now to make some prints. Start by brayering some paint onto your plate, press on your template removed it and place a piece of paper onto the plate. Rub gently and then start pulling prints. Alternatively you can apply the paint directly onto your template and use it as a stamp.
Here are some I prepared earlier.
To make the circles, I flattened the long tube and then rolled the cross section down along the length of the paper. Secure it in place with some glue and then glue them to the backboard.
These are pretty awesome art works as is especially if you use colourful magazines but if you do use them to print with you have endless possibilities of what you can make with your prints. You can frame them as is or cut them up and used them in your art journals or on your scrapbooking layouts securing them in place with Helmar Professional Acid Free of course as it's my favourite glue ever!
Here are as few examples of what I have done with my prints.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope I have inspired you to pull out your gelli plate if you have one and make some art.
Thank you to Mark and the Team at Helmar Worldwide for having me on the team for the past year, I have enjoyed my time and I hope I have inspired a few people with my ideas.
See you around the Web. Be sure to follow my Instagram to check out my bits and bobs. @popleopod
Krisy xx
