Printing a Tote bag with small gelatin plate

This morning I refreshed a couple of my gelatin printing plates. As you may have discovered they shrink a bit and get stiffer over time. This happens because the water evaporates.

You can see in the picture below that the gelatin plate shrank about 1/2 ” on the top and bottom.

gelatin plate that has shrank a bit

Before melting the printing plates, I cut some rectangles, squares and circles. I found that it was easy to cut the gelatin with scissors. I punched the circles with recycled caps, but I think a nice cookie cutter would make a cleaner cut.

tiny gelatin and glycerin plates for hand printing on fabric

Then I pulled out some acrylic paint and hand printed this tote bag! Fun stuff.

hand printed tote bag

If you would like to explore hand printing fabric with the gelatin plate then read the details and join us in the next session of Monoprinting Fabric. Class starts soon.