Carol Wiebe

Gelatin Plate Printing with Eggs on my Mind

I have been wanting to try gelatin plate printing for a quite some time. However, one has to question how much one wants something that one never gets around to doing.

It reminds me of the letter written by a little girl to her aunt, thanking her for the birthday present of some beautiful hankies. They may be heirlooms of the future, but we are fairly certain that the letter is parentally prompted. The wording gives it away:

Thank you so much, auntie, for the beautiful hankies you sent me for my birthday. I’ve always wanted hankies, although not very much.

Last Monday I cooked up some gelatin and poured it on a cookie pan. When the gelatin had set enough to move without spilling, I put the pan in the fridge downstairs, and was not able to get to it until Friday. I wondered if I would find one large, hard, gelled lump when I pulled it out. Happily, it was firm, but still giving and responsive to the touch. A good friend of mine works for the Ontario egg board, and her birthday is coming up soon, so I decided to do an egg theme in her honor. I wanted simple, uncomplicated shapes so that I could just play and get a feel for the process

I pulled about 50 prints all together over 2 days. I used ordinary acrylic paint, which is not supposed to be suitable because it dries out too quickly, but it worked for me. Next time, I will experiment with Golden Open Acrylics. Not all of the prints are worth keeping, but I really took to the process. When your mind offers a full length movie of possibilities using a certain technique, you know you are onto something.

Here are 3 pulled prints, and 3 variations. See the wonky edges of the gelatin? Now the prints are in my design paper collection.

This is an actual pulled print.