Workshop
Gel Plates
The papers I use in collage are generally made with a gel plate. The history, the how, and the recipes, are free to download.
My style of collage needs paper. Generally, I make the paper I need. I pull prints from a gel plate and those printed sheets become the raw material of the work. The full guides are below, free.
A little history
Gel printing is an old technique. It comes from the hectograph, a gelatine duplicator from the 1860s. In Greek ‘hecto’ means “hundred,” but a gelatine plate really ran off twenty to eighty copies. In Australia school children printed hectographs straight into their exercise books. And prisoners of war at Stalag Luft III and Colditz Castle made improvised gel plates to print escape maps. Some of these are held in the archives of the Australian War Memorial.
Why it works
A gel plate is mostly gelatine; a protein made from collagen. It sets soft and flexible when mixed with glycerine. Once set you can roll a thin, tacky layer of ink across it, press in leaves or texture, lay your paper down, and lift the ink after it dries. No press needed. Every print is unique. Mistakes become discoveries.
The guides — free to download
I’ve put everything I’ve worked out into two booklets. Take them, use them, pass them on. No sign-up.
If you make something with them, I’d love to see it. Find me on Instagram.