Art Experiment, gelli printing on Interfacing

Art Experiment is a a series of posts using supplies which I own but have rarely (or never) used. Failure or success is not important, it is trying something different and seeing what can come from it.  There are three goals: try something new, use something in my supply stash, and have fun/experiment in the studio.

I have a bunch of interfacing that I had inherited or bought(?). A lot of it does not have adhesive on it. I was inspired by Gelli Arts video on their website, here, to gelli print on some of it.

My interfacing stash

I am sure I own this interfacing because I am enamored with the book Hot Textiles (and another book that I don't remember the name of and will try to add later. I cannot find this on Amazon for the life of me. It has a green cover and I believe the title had recycling fabric in the title. All my books are still in boxes from the move. Three days looking on Amazon and still no luck).  I really want to make some textile art with polyester materials and melt parts of it.  Hopefully I will get to that part in the future.  In the mean time, this week I gelli printed on my interfacing. I know somewhere in my stash I also have some Tyvek and Evolon for my future fiber melting experiments. Their location is not currently known, as there are still boxes from our move that have not been unearthed, so that will be a separate post/experiment when they are located. I did find some nappy liners and lightweight lutradur to add to this experiment.

I used the same process I would for gelli printing on paper or fabric. I put paint on the plate and rolled it out with a brayer.  I laid down some stencils, then my interfacing, and pull a print. If there is still paint on the plate, I try to pull a ghost print. And so on, and so on. Until my dining table is covered. Then I often add another layer to most of them. I go into more detail about gelli printing in my post here. 

I found printing on interfacing very similar to paper.  If using a thin interfacing, I recommend putting a piece of deli paper on top as the paint does seep through the interfacing. Typically I couldn't get a decent print on the deli paper as well, there was not enough seeping paint for that.  I had a thin and a thick interfacing and liked the thin one better, as the prints can be layered over other prints, since they are translucent.

Here are my interfacing prints.

I also did some prints on fabric.

And some on deli paper

 I also did some black and white prints (love them!), mainly on fabric.

I really liked using the interfacing for gelli printing and would definitely use it again. I have a project for these already, so I hope to get working on using these soon.


Update 9/8/14: See my post here using a gelli print on interfacing and one of these deli paper prints to make a piece of artwork.