Workshop: Gel Printing

I was thrilled that Yaxi and I were able to take part in the Gel Printing workshop offered in the Illustrators Survival Corner. I've been wanting to play with this method since first hearing about it. Gel printing is really just mono-printing (meaning you only get one go at any given piece); however, because you're using a gel surface to apply your paint and whatever else, it's especially forgiving. And no, it's not edible, Yaxi! LOL!We were given a quick tutorial, plus supplies and paint.The outcomes were really quite wonderful, especially as folks realized what they could experiment with.
We were given newspapers to clean our brayers, but I actually liked some of the images in the paper, so tore them out to create collages with my gel printing. You lay the paint down first, so it held the collage items in place. The images plus a length of thread (intended to be used to bind our artwork into small zines) gave me some outcomes that I liked so much, I might frame them! (Mine are the bottom four on the right.)One of my trials didn't match the others, so I gave it to the son of one of the participants—they were both tickled silly and wanted photos.It's so funny how these things just grow and turn into special new things!

To read about my journey in order, follow these links:
01 - Shanghai!
02 - A Mall and Grocery Store
03 - Custom Dress
04 - The Long Museum
05 - The Quay on the Yangtze?
06 - Old City of Shanghai at Huangpu District
07 - Old Shanghai
08 - Dumplings for lunch!
09 - Yu Garden
10 - Storyland
11 - Hot Pot at Cloud Nice Shopping Mall Changning Branch
12 - The China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair
13 - Art Exhibitions at the China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair
14 - Workshop: Gel Printing
15 - The train to Hangzhou
16 - Speaking at China Jiliang University
17 - Hangzhou - Our personal fall-apart party
18 - The Teahouse Garden in Hangzhou
19 - China wrap-up