Geli Printing with Fiber Junkies

It's that time again, always a happy dance day when the Fiber Junkies meet and meet we did at Gen's home for some Geli printing. Gen had everything set up and ready to go; we brought geli plates, plexiglass, paints, lots of fabric, stencils...the list goes on. We were ready to PLAY! I had never used a geli plate and some of the gals brought extra to share. Denny was also thinking ahead and made some homemade gelatin plates for us to try and compare the difference.

 My vote was for the homemade gelatin plates; it had the most give to it and a nice "squishy" feel when you were working with the surface.  My least favorite was the plexiglass which had no give to it and harder to roll the paint onto.

 This is my plexiglass plate with paint on it and more being added; this will be retired after today.

After paint was applied to the plate, a stencil, stamp and other object was laid on top to make an imprint. You can also write in it or make a design of your own. You have to work fast as the paint dries quickly.  Next the fabric or paper was laid on top to pick up the design from the plate.

Here is one that Denny did which is hanging to dry.

 Denny chose to work in disperse dyes which were thickened with alginate. She printed on paper which will then be transferred to fabric - clever lady!

 What a great, and another way to use these dyes which are transferred through heat onto a synthetic or blended fabric.

Mary has been pondering over this piece of wool for many meetings but like a good trooper, refused to give up on it. The above piece which she had already sunprinted, shiboried and ice dyed was not what she wanted.

So here is the after (of the before) where she geli printed an image on top. Mary was literally doing a happy dance, now loves the piece and commits very seriously to the philosophy of not giving up. It really does look great and I look forward to seeing what Mary will do with it.

 I did try and rescue some close to hopeless pieces of fabric, they are a little less hopeless now but I'm still not doing a happy dance over them.

I did do a lot of paper for our paper-fabric meeting which has become an annual event.

 So where to put all our pieces to dry - Denny to the rescue with her make-shift and terribly clever hanging system for holding lots of things - skirt hangers attached to a pole...

which worked great and really did the job - A great day - stay tuned for our wonderful show and tell...til next time...or as my husband likes to say - "Have fun with the Junkies".