Gelatine printing on paper

The childrens art workshops this month were a lot of fun experimenting with different textures and paints.

We did gelatine printing on paper, but this kind of printing can also be done on fabric.

I think the prints done on fabric could become a quilt or cushion cover. I love some of the subtle colours, but the bold bright colours are wonderful too.

An autumn print done with pastel colours.

I asked the children to bring different materials to print with: feathers, leaves, different textured papers,lace,string.

I have a lot of stencils, so we used those as well.

The prints can be used for further art work and I encouraged the children to think of a way how to use the prints by layering or cutting the images or colouring the images with different art materials.

I really like them to make the decisions, I just offer ideas and enough good art materials for them to use and explore with.

                                                                     Some bold apple prints.                                                                                       

The gelatine printing base last for about two weeks kept in the fridge and I added a little bleach to the mixture before I poured the gelatine into the trays.
I used aluminium foil baking trays bought at the "Two dollar" shop in Motueka.

Stencils and leaves print

After printing cracks can appear in the gelatine, but instead of making a new lot I just melt the gelatine base in the microwave and pour it again into the trays.
Skim the airbubbles of with a strip of newspaper, because the printing base needs to be really smooth for printing.

Art work on top of a print

Some of the children designed their own images and one of the boys made a deer stencil.
I talked about negative and positive spaces and the prints are a great tool for explaining this concept.

Stencil of  a deer cut by one of the boys

Most of the recipes how to make a gelatine printing base I found on the internet are from the States and they have different brands and packaging then in New Zealand.
I will give my recipe and it works really well.
Please do not pour the gelatine down the sink, it will block the drains. I will dispose my gelatine base in the compost bin.

Busy working

A leaf art work on top of a print

The gelatine  base with a print in it.

Bubble wrap and shapes

The recipe for a gelatine printing base:

• Pour 250ml of hot water into a measuring cup and add 8 tablespoons of gelatine powder.
• Stir briskly with a fork until dissolved.
• Pour 750ml of water with a little bleach into the tray and add the dissolved gelatine and stir.
• Air bubbles will appear on the surface, use a strip of newspaper to slide over the surface of the gelatine and take the airbubbles of. You want a smooth surface for printing.
• Let the gelatine set overnight in the fridge.  

Use a brayer or paint roller, I used cheap foam paint rollers, to spread the acrylic  paints onto the gelatine base, lay the materials on the paint and place your paper on top and use a clean paint roller to print the image onto the paper.
I think the gelatine printing is really exciting and I will try some more on fabric to make my own cushion cover, maybe colourful autumn leaves.

Art Workshops for children

This week I started teaching art workshops for children in my " garage studio".

Half of the garage is converted into a studio, this will work for the warmer season,but for the colder months I have to use our cottage.

The space in the garage is ideal, because of the concrete floor,so it doesn't matter if the art gets messy.

I teach 5 groups of home schoolers, total of 25 children.

This first workshop was inspired by the artist and architect Hundertwasser,very well known for his colourfull and 'out of the square buildings' in Vienna and his amazing artworks.

Hundertwasser believed that people are happier when they live in colourfull houses and close to nature.

He lived in and loved New Zealand and built the toilets in Kawakawa in the Bay of Islands,worth a visit.

I showed the children a book with his artwork and buildings to inspire them.

The children first drew their dream house or street with white chalk on black paper and they used oil and chalk pastels to colour and then glued different papers to the art work to add texture.

I asked the children to draw big and fill the paper and the houses could look out of shape and different and very colourful.

I sprayed the artwork with a fixative to protect the pastels.

Beautiful work emerged and the children loved the project.

a finished street

Colourful house

The drawing

A town

An apartment building with a tree growing through

Autumn at our cottage

Summer is gone and Autumn has arrived for already fourteen days when I believe the calendar on the wall.

Autumn in New Zealand  officially starts on the first of March.

While half of the world goes into the beginning of Spring and warmer weather, we are heading towards the colder mornings and nights.

I must say, we had only a few of those colder days, for the rest of the time it is still hot and the outside temperature today reached 28 degrees again and I am sweating in the kitchen making crab apple jellies and rhubarb ginger jam.
Last week my friend Elizabeth gave me a box of the sweetest Italian tomatoes "Roma"  from her garden and I bottled them whole  in jars and also made tomato sauce and I will write the recipe in the blog post. So keep on reading.

Shabby Chic Beach cabinet

Now the weather is getting slightly cooler I have finished the cupboard in my "garage studio", it was just to hot to work in there during February. I painted the cupboard with chalk paint blue first and then used a thinner coat of chalk paint green on top and sanded this layer of paint back to show the green colour underneath.

Then I decorated the cupboard door with a fish image from "The Graphics Fairy" website and painted the shells and seahorses with acrylic paint.

The cupboard is finished with wax to protect the surface.

So voila an old brown cupboard has now a new life in beach style.

The shells are painted in acrylics

Tomato sauce from my homegrown tomatoes.

This week I have been busy bottling and preserving; jams and jellies for my road stall and also for ourselves the tomatoes and plums in sauces and whole in the freezer for winter soups and pasta.
Next the pears are getting ripe,so bottling and freezing again.

My plant and preserve stall at the gate

The last of the summer sunflowers.

The recipe for the tomato sauce:

• Fill a big pot with tomatoes and cook until soft.
• Tip the whole lot into a colander on top of the big pot again and use a wooden spoon to push the pulp through the colander so you are only left with the tomato skins.
• Add half a cup of cider vinegar, half a cup of sugar,4 or 5 crushed garlic cloves, pepper and salt  to the sauce in the pot and if you want a bite to the sauce some chili flakes and cook slowly for a hour or so till the sauce thickens.
• You can thicken the sauce more with cornflour if needed.
• Pour hot into sterilized bottles and seal for the best, full of antioxidants tomato sauce ever.