Awesome stuff

A couple of art journal / painting pictures for this week so far.   

In the one above, you may have noticed a monoprinting / printmaking sort of thing?  (The thick plate looking item on the right next to the blue/circles print.) If you haven't already heard of it, this thing is called a Gelli Plate.  I've seen them around for awhile and have wanted one pretty much the moment I laid eyes on it.  The video tutorials and prints people have created make it look so mouth wateringly awesome.  So, after much deliberation, I decided it was something I wanted.  Well, that's not true, I already knew I really wanted it.  The reason it took me so long to get it is because the only way I can get one is by buying it online.  And I hate buying things online. :P 

But I finally bought one anyway and honestly, I hate that I waited so long.  I LOVE IT!  It creates such cool designs and is so easy to use.  I bought the 8x10 but I've seen videos where you can use the smaller sizes the same as you would a stamp!  There's so much I love about it, it's hard to list them all.  One of the best things is that it lets you create backgrounds so quickly and easily.  It's really not that hard to clean either.  I've heard mixed reviews on that but I cleaned mine pretty well between uses with an old t-shirt rag and water.  It actually feels like a plate of really sturdy, clear jell-o which is kind of weirdly awesome?  When I was sharing it's general awesomeness with my family, they all wanted to (and ultimately did) touch it.  LoL!  It also has a general stickiness to it which is great for keeping it from sliding around.  For my trial run I pretty much left it in the clear package it came in, as you can see, but if you're planning to use it long term, I recommend mounting it to something that's probably a bit more secure and permanent, just so it doesn't move around too much on you.  The more paint I used the more the entire thing seemed to want to move around on me. 

I'm sure you'll be seeing lots more prints in my future posts and hearing more then you want to about it, but I wanted to share this with you guys while it is fresh in my studio.  ;)  Also, if you're looking to purchase one for yourself, I ended up finding that Dick Blick art supplies had them at the cheapest rate and lowest shipping fees, at least for US customers.  (Quick thanks to Alisa Burke for sharing her finds on this as well!)  If you have discount codes you may be able to get it cheaper, but for me they had the best deal I found. 


P.S. I would recommend getting a rubber brayer to go with it as well.  It's not absolutely necessary but I think it would be much easier if you have one, especially if you plan to do lots of layers and want to do them quickly.  I didn't end up getting one with mine but I'm pretty sure I'll probably be picking one up on my next art supplies run.