Gelatin Print Making

What a treat! Today we went to the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) for a private class with Lin Lacy.

Laurie has a permanently installed piece of public art at MCBA:

And so does Lin:

Here’s Lin getting us ready to start:

Lin made us a beautiful breakfast, in itself a work of art, and showed us her newly remodeled home with spacious grounds and a magical lilac tree that I can only dream of having in California (they just don’t seem to grow large like that back home). She has bunnies hopping around, a bountiful garden, and a kitchen sink from the Emirates that I would love to have. Plus, a commercial dishwashing faucet that will shoot water across the entire house.

Lin made us each a gelatin plate on Saturday, so these plates were nicely set up by the time we went to use them this morning. We used brayers, found objects, mesh bags and stamps to make textures and impressions on the plates, then simply laid paper over the top of the inked plate and gently rubbed with our fingertips. The results were very satisfying.

Lin about ready to use a rubber stamp on her inked up plate:

Here are some pictures of us at the MBCA studio, and a couple of shots of work I produced. It’s all good – those that didn’t turn out so well as stand-on-their-own pieces will be perfect for incorporating into collages or as encaustic pieces. Thank you Lin! I’ll return in the spring when we will have an encaustic class to return the favor.

Laurie in her printing apron, inking up her brayer:

Here I am inking up my gelatin plate:

A piece I did with some leaves from a tree in Laurie’s yard, with a stamp overlay:

A diptych made with cardboard letters:

Another version of the leaves piece with a contrasting border:

A little detour into the type room – it was filled to the gills with typeface. Wow.