Thanks for your infinite patience with li'l ol' me, and thanks to Betsey for her insousance (which, by the way, makes a tasty soup), persistence, and enthusiastic but inscrutable description of the upcoming project, with its jell-o and paper and paint and aliens and ?donkeys (isn't there a smaller creature that makes a braying noise?). My garrs and starters, but if we each brought our own donkey, it would get awfully crowded, not to say a tad messy. But I'm ahead of myself, aren't I? Yes. Yes, I am.
So Betsie and Lesley will each bring several pans of jell-o. (Be sure and let them know your flavorite favors! Mine is Green, love that Green flavor.) This is for to put the ink on, then put some nice paper on the ink-laden jell-o, and remove the paper, let it dry (perhaps the donkeys could breathe on it, which might cut down on their braying), and you have a nice piece of artwork that smells vaguely like a barn.
"How does one put the ink on the jell-o?" I hear you ask. Good question! You could squirt it on, right out of the tube, or you could get a roller thingie (I don't remember what these are called, I think it starts with a 'p' or a 'd' -- platen? distributor?) and a slab of something like stone or plastic that doesn't absorb ink, and roller the ink flat, then roller it onto the jell-o, for example. "Okay, I figured that out, but that just makes a solid color, how do you make designs in the ink?" you continue to interrupt. I'm typing my little heart out here, so just hold your donkeys! Sheesh!
So you could cut/tear pieces of paper, or leaves, or pretty much anything flat-ish and put them on the jell-o before you rollerize/platenate the ink onto it. then peel them off, which would leave uninked holes on the jell-o. So when you took a full-sized sheet of paper and plunked it down on the inked jell-o, you'd get the ink left over to make a pattern. Or you could ink the jell-o, and use a brush, comb, fork, stick or finger (perhaps an alien's finger, since he's just overing there with nothing to do), or perhaps a donkey's ear or tail, to move ink around on the jell-o, making a pattern where the ink isn't any more. But for Crom's sake, don't let the donkey flap its ears or tail, or there'll be paint all over Pam's dining room. Lawsy mercy!
You could selectively ink, like with a rubber stamp stamped in the ink, then onto the jell-o, which would make a positive (or at least a double negative) image of the stamp. Or use a donkey-tail brush to paint ink onto the jell-o. Or put a piece of fabric or embossed paper on it, to absorb selectively, accordion to its texture. Or you could combine all those techniques, plus others I and the aliens have not really fingered out yet.
Once you're ready to print your monoprint (so named by Angelo Mono, the inventor of jell-o), you carefully align a sheet of artsy paper atop the jell-o and press it down. You could use your fingers and fingernails for a lighter touch. A flat hard board would apply even pressure all around, but you might get some holidays (days off). You might use a wooden spoon or bone folder, only you wouldn't press as hard on the paper as you might with a wood block or linoleum block, unless the jell-o is really old and hard. Not that you'd want to eat it anyway, what with all the paint and donkeys. Then peel the paper back carefully, talking to it sweetly and soothingly, because it's probably a little perturbed at all that poking and pushing with the sticks and things. Put the paper where the donkeys can breathe on it, or give it to the aliens to wave about in the air to dry, and then clean off your jell-o (with a wet paper towel, or wipe it on your pant-leg) in preparation for the next print. Rinse and repeat.
So bring acrylic paint, roller thingies (appliers?), stone or plastic flat surfaces to rollerize paint on/with, various cut papers or papers to cut and sharp things to cut with, fabric and/or textures, a wooden spoon or bone folder, your hands and fingers, a paintbrush or two, a donkey, an alien (if you still have one), some paper to print the prints on, and some whipped cream and a spoon for all that left-over jell-o!? Perhaps some carrots for the donkey, and maybe some batteries for the alien, I don't really know what they eat, they're so... nonhuman.
Well, I hope that clears up all those pesky questions, and we're now all ready to print those princely prints! Someday my prints will... now, when did that turn nasty all of a sudden? That Walt Disney, I swan, when he up and died the whole TV went crazy, I tell you, crazy.
The slightly less busy but still somewhat busy,
Richard
P.S. So it's looking like the meeting is on the 11th of October, or as the Romans would say, the XIth of October. Or as Columbus would say, "Heya, that'sa the day after my birth-a day (observed)!"
So Betsie and Lesley will each bring several pans of jell-o. (Be sure and let them know your flavorite favors! Mine is Green, love that Green flavor.) This is for to put the ink on, then put some nice paper on the ink-laden jell-o, and remove the paper, let it dry (perhaps the donkeys could breathe on it, which might cut down on their braying), and you have a nice piece of artwork that smells vaguely like a barn.
"How does one put the ink on the jell-o?" I hear you ask. Good question! You could squirt it on, right out of the tube, or you could get a roller thingie (I don't remember what these are called, I think it starts with a 'p' or a 'd' -- platen? distributor?) and a slab of something like stone or plastic that doesn't absorb ink, and roller the ink flat, then roller it onto the jell-o, for example. "Okay, I figured that out, but that just makes a solid color, how do you make designs in the ink?" you continue to interrupt. I'm typing my little heart out here, so just hold your donkeys! Sheesh!
So you could cut/tear pieces of paper, or leaves, or pretty much anything flat-ish and put them on the jell-o before you rollerize/platenate the ink onto it. then peel them off, which would leave uninked holes on the jell-o. So when you took a full-sized sheet of paper and plunked it down on the inked jell-o, you'd get the ink left over to make a pattern. Or you could ink the jell-o, and use a brush, comb, fork, stick or finger (perhaps an alien's finger, since he's just overing there with nothing to do), or perhaps a donkey's ear or tail, to move ink around on the jell-o, making a pattern where the ink isn't any more. But for Crom's sake, don't let the donkey flap its ears or tail, or there'll be paint all over Pam's dining room. Lawsy mercy!
You could selectively ink, like with a rubber stamp stamped in the ink, then onto the jell-o, which would make a positive (or at least a double negative) image of the stamp. Or use a donkey-tail brush to paint ink onto the jell-o. Or put a piece of fabric or embossed paper on it, to absorb selectively, accordion to its texture. Or you could combine all those techniques, plus others I and the aliens have not really fingered out yet.
Once you're ready to print your monoprint (so named by Angelo Mono, the inventor of jell-o), you carefully align a sheet of artsy paper atop the jell-o and press it down. You could use your fingers and fingernails for a lighter touch. A flat hard board would apply even pressure all around, but you might get some holidays (days off). You might use a wooden spoon or bone folder, only you wouldn't press as hard on the paper as you might with a wood block or linoleum block, unless the jell-o is really old and hard. Not that you'd want to eat it anyway, what with all the paint and donkeys. Then peel the paper back carefully, talking to it sweetly and soothingly, because it's probably a little perturbed at all that poking and pushing with the sticks and things. Put the paper where the donkeys can breathe on it, or give it to the aliens to wave about in the air to dry, and then clean off your jell-o (with a wet paper towel, or wipe it on your pant-leg) in preparation for the next print. Rinse and repeat.
So bring acrylic paint, roller thingies (appliers?), stone or plastic flat surfaces to rollerize paint on/with, various cut papers or papers to cut and sharp things to cut with, fabric and/or textures, a wooden spoon or bone folder, your hands and fingers, a paintbrush or two, a donkey, an alien (if you still have one), some paper to print the prints on, and some whipped cream and a spoon for all that left-over jell-o!? Perhaps some carrots for the donkey, and maybe some batteries for the alien, I don't really know what they eat, they're so... nonhuman.
Well, I hope that clears up all those pesky questions, and we're now all ready to print those princely prints! Someday my prints will... now, when did that turn nasty all of a sudden? That Walt Disney, I swan, when he up and died the whole TV went crazy, I tell you, crazy.
The slightly less busy but still somewhat busy,
Richard
P.S. So it's looking like the meeting is on the 11th of October, or as the Romans would say, the XIth of October. Or as Columbus would say, "Heya, that'sa the day after my birth-a day (observed)!"
