For the past 3 months, I've been posting a series of reels on Instagram that have featured different found textures I use when gel plate printing. Some of them were familiar favorites and others were new experiments.
Basically, I felt like I was in a texture rut, reaching for the same "tools" each time, so it was an opportunity to refresh my collection (and memory) of texture tools and share the process with my followers.
Truthfully, I didn't end up sharing every texture I played with, but sometimes you want to keep things for yourself. I also decided to pause the series for a while. I'm not sure when/if I'll start sharing them on Instagram again, but I need to explore other ideas with the start of the New Year.
Below are a few of my favorite printed papers from the series. If you're interested in watching all the videos you can find them on my YouTube channel or my reels tab on Instagram.
Plastic shipping wrap (or shrink wrap)
I love the interesting, organic texture created by this very inorganic material on the gel plate.
Plastic strapping used when shipping heavy items
While these strips can be used to mask areas of the printing plate, I was more interested in the texture of the lines that were left on the gel plate for the ghost print.
"Antique" potato mashers wrapped in string.
I've have used these old kitchen tools for gel printing for years, but they were always a little slippery on the gel plate. Then one day it dawned on me that I could wrap them in string or yarn and it would eliminate that problem, plus create an interesting texture. Kinda mad I didn't think of this one years ago.
Raffia
This might be an all time favorite texture. I absolutely love the initial print using the raffia as a mask, and the texture left on the plate for the ghost print.
Sea Shells
I was pleasantly surprised by these clam shells. I took a bit of practice to figure out the best way to roll them across the plate, but I think it was worth it.
